In the Red: Local authority budgets face a growing deficit
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An increasing deficit in local authority budgets including Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray continues to grow new figures show.
The BBC's Shared Data Unit which provided the statistics surveyed 190 upper-tier authorities in the UK to find out the extent of the financial difficulties for authorities, which provide services from adult social care to bin collections and pothole repairs.
The average council now faces a £33m predicted deficit by 2025-26 - a rise of 60 per cent from £20m two years ago even after making planned cuts.
Aberdeen City - Net revenue budget (£m) 540; Predicted deficit by 2025-26 (£m)40.4; Planned savings (£m) 43.4; Savings as % of net budget 8; Savings per person (£) 191.
Aberdeenshire - Net revenue budget (£m) 711; Predicted deficit by 2025-26 (£m) 49.6; Planned savings (£m)18.6; Savings as % of net budget 2.6 ; Savings per person (£)70.9.
Moray - Net revenue budget (£m) 260.8; Predicted deficit by 2025-26 (£m)20.9: Planned savings (£m) 4.5; Savings as % of net budget 1.7; Savings per person (£) 46.3.
Source: Data from 185 of 218 UK upper-tier authorities (2023-24 budget).
Throughout the country councils are closing leisure centres, reducing care packages and raising fees for services like waste collection and parking in order to break even.
And this week a glimpse of the scale of issues facing Aberdeenshire Council has been revealed in papers made public which are being presented to councillors at an upcoming meeting.
The report to the Infrastructure Services committee on Thursday is an update on the forecast position for the services for which it has responsibility.
It indicates: "That the original total revenue budget for 2023/24 was £59.668m, rising to £59.947m due to the draw down from reserves.
"The total forecast net expenditure for the year as at 30 June 2023 is £1.597m over budget."
Examples in the report including Building Standards which is forecast to be £522,000 over budget due to a large increase in applications in January 2023 as major housebuilders tried to avoid new changes to Building Regulations which were due to start from February 2023. As a result, the subsequent number of applications in the new financial year have been significantly lower impacting on income generated from fees.
Natural Environment Planning and Projects are forecast to be £177,000 over budget within staffing. Due to the economic crisis external grant funding to support some staff salaries was not approved in this financial year by an external source. The Service are actively looking for alternative external income to mitigate this overspend.
Bereavement Services is forecast to be £202,000 over budget. As in previous years, costs of maintenance of cemeteries has exceeded budgets. The current income budget is not achievable and will be reviewed.
Grounds Maintenance is forecast to be £673,000 over budget, predominately in Staffing. This is a recurring pressure and was highlighted throughout the Financial Reports in 2022/2023 with internal fixed and variable transport recharges being higher than the available budget. Staff within the grounds team are also currently assisting in moving the carcases of the dead birds on the beaches within the Aberdeenshire area during the recent outbreak of Avian Flu.
Most services are running to budget and several have also noted potential underspends including Trading Standards which is forecast to be £157,000 under budget mainly due to vacancies within the staffing section. Part of this budget will be vired to Animal Welfare in relation to
payments received from Food Standards Scotland to cover the cost of duties carried out by the Animal Health and welfare team.
Waste Disposal is forecast to be £435,000 under budget due to additional income from the sale of electricity from the new energy waste plant. This is expected to be a recurring saving though the price will be dependent on the market for electricity.
