Foreword by the Executive Director of Corporate Services
Much has changed since we last consulted on our budget proposals in 2006.
Then the main themes we consulted on were the balance of Council Tax increase and efficiency savings needed mainly to pay for implementing changes to staff pay, terms and conditions known as “single status”.
Following the changes in leadership of the Council during 2007, single status has been implemented. And earlier this year we introduced a Council Tax freeze supported by the Scottish Government.
The structure of our budgets has not changed. As in 2006, in February 2009 the Council will actually set two budgets.
We will set the Council Tax for 2009/10 and the budgets for all services except Council Housing. We call this the General Services Budget. This is covered in Part A of this paper.
We will also set a separate budget for Council Housing and the rents charged to tenants that will be charged for 2009/10. This separation is a legal obligation. The rents charged are subject to a separate consultation exercise with tenants, but we have included this budget within this consultation, as this is such an important service in East Lothian that impacts on so many people and organisations. We call this the HRA (Housing Revenue Account) budget, and this is covered in Part B of this paper.
Although we have seen major changes since 2006, the key issues are the same. How much should council tax and rents be? What are our spending priorities? How can we become more efficient?
Alex McCrorie
Executive Director of Corporate Services
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?