Budget Leader welcomes additional funding

The Highland Council Budget Leader, Cllr Alister Mackinnon has welcomed the announcement of additional funding in the Scottish Government’s block grant which takes £7.516 million off the substantial budget gap.

Cllr Mackinnon said: “This additional money, agreed at the 11th hour is indeed welcome news and means that we will not be forced to cut as deeply as we had first feared.

“The funding will give us the means to protect more frontline services and to avoid the loss of any jobs.

“However, due to the size of our budget gap which has increased to allow for the changes to government’s proposed pay settlement, we still need to make savings or generate additional income to the tune of £16 million. This will not be easy.

“We have done a great deal of work in identifying options to close this gap with the least possible impact on essential services. We also anticipate that there will continue to be increased pressures and a need for savings in future years and we need to plan ahead for these. We will bring forward these proposals to balance the budget for 2018-19 and to prepare for future years, for approval by council on 15 February.”