The council has said that this rise keeps North Ayrshire broadly in line with the average Council Tax level in Scotland. Council Tax is expected to bring in approximately £58.8 million and makes up about 17% of the council’s income, with the bulk of funding coming directly from the Scottish Government.

North Ayrshire Council has said around 86 new jobs will be created over the next few years despite the council facing yet another challenging financial settlement. Jobs will be created to support Community Wealth Building, within the Health and Social Care Partnership and as part of the expansion of early years.

These will be slightly offset by the removal of a small number of posts which will be managed through vacancies, redeployment, voluntary early retirement and voluntary redundancy.

The budget saw approval for the creation of an £8.8m investment fund to be invested in environmental and infrastructure projects as well as supporting Community Wealth Building. A further benefit is the potential to generate income helping bridge a future anticipated funding gap.

In addition, it was agreed to establish an £86,000 Drugs Emergency Fund.

This year, the council faced a budget gap of £11.409m but it sought to protect crucial services.

North Ayrshire Council is faced with financial challenges in setting the budget, having made approximately £102m of cuts over the past decade as funding from Central Government hasn’t kept pace with the rising demand and cost of services. The £358m Revenue Budget – which pays for the day-to-day running of council services – is funded largely through the settlement from the Scottish Government.

This year, the council faced a £1.205m reduction to its core grant - about 0.43%reduction from last year.

Ring-fenced funding has been provided to meet national spending requirements such as teacher pension and pay awards, early years expansion and access to school counselling among others.

Joe Cullinane, council leader, said: “We’re heading into the second decade of austerity but despite the financial challenges we’re proud to be creating additional jobs while protecting our crucial services. I am particularly pleased that this budget provides investment, through staffing resource and capital funding, to drive forward our exciting Community Wealth Building agenda.

“It becomes more and more difficult every year to set a balanced budget and it has reached a stage where any further cuts will be likely to impact the services we provide to a greater extent.

“The long-term financial position is unsustainable, and something must change if we are to continue to provide the everyday services which people need.

“That’s why we have taken the prudent decision to invest the one-off savings we made refinancing loans, which generated savings of £9.8m, in areas that will generate new income streams for the council in future years whilst driving forward our priorities of Community Wealth Building and tackling the climate emergency.”