Chairman welcomes prudent budgeting and underspend

Highland Councillors have been advised that prudent financial management by budget holders is set to result in the Council coming in under budget in 2010/11 by almost £7 million.  A report to the Resources Committee on Wednesday 8 June, gives members a near-final position on the revenue budget and states that work on closing the final accounts is ongoing, with the final position for 2010/11 to be presented to Council on Thursday 23 June.

Councillor Carolyn Wilson, Chairman of the Resources Committee, says the projected underspend will place the Council in a strong position to meet the increasing funding pressures its faces.

She said: “This is really good news for the council and is a tribute to the rigorous and effective financial management of our revenue budget by both members and Services.  There are some pretty tough times ahead and the underspend gives us the scope to better meet the pressures that we will inevitably face and protect frontline services.

 “The underspend will increase our balances and therefore put the Council in a much stronger position to deal with any one-off costs or emergencies that may arise in future.  Balances are important to give the Council capacity to deal with unplanned expenditure such as severe weather events.”