Councillors will next week (Wednesday 1 March 2023) meet to consider proposals put forward by senior staff in Perth & Kinross Council for how to achieve a balanced budget for the next financial year.

A cost of living crisis, climate and biodiversity crises, a growing inequalities gap and demographic changes mean officers have had to present councillors with hard choices for them to consider when they meet to agree the Capital and Revenue Budgets for 2023/24 and indicative budgets for the following two years.

Proposals put forward for consideration as part of that budget have now been published. Following on from the Medium Term Financial Plan agreed by the council in September, these include a range of service reductions and a limited number of reductions in posts within the council workforce.

To set a balanced Revenue Budget for 2023/24, the council has to meet a projected shortfall of £31m. As staffing costs are a significant part of the council’s spend, the budget proposals which have been put forward include some which will impact on staff numbers. However, officers have been at pains to minimise this as far as possible, with fewer than 45 full-time equivalent jobs at risk in the next financial year and between 70 and 80 in each of the subsequent years, protecting around 97% of the existing workforce.

Thomas Glen, chief executive of Perth & Kinross Council, said: “As public servants, none of us want to be in this position where we are putting forward budget proposals which include any workforce reductions or cuts to services that we know local residents appreciate. But, the scale of the financial challenge we face means that difficult choices have to be put forward for consideration by Councillors. At the same time we have done everything we can to protect jobs for the staff who work in and serve our communities and to prioritise services which help the most vulnerable in our communities.

“Ultimately it will be for councillors, having had access to all the facts and the full report into the feedback received from communities, to focus on the priorities they have already set in the Corporate Plan. They will decide whether the proposals from officers should go ahead or how else the budget should be balanced.”

Community feedback was received through in person events last year and an online survey which ran from October 2022 to the end of January. Over 1,000 people responded to share their views on the council’s new corporate priorities and where spending should be focussed, with the cost of living, educational provision, climate change and social care emerging as the top four priorities for respondents.

The corporate priorities were agreed by the council in December 2022 in the Corporate Plan for 2022-2027. Those seven priorities have been a driver for the council’s senior leadership team when considering what to include in the budget proposals.

Thomas Glen explained: “To help decide what proposals to put forward we returned time and again to the priorities in our Corporate Plan. These are the things the council has promised the people of Perth and Kinross that it will focus on, so the most important consideration in making savings proposals has been how they will impact on our ability to deliver on that promise. Officers will continue to focus available resources on the council’s priorities and supporting those in greatest need.

“Whatever the outcome of next week’s budget this is a time of transformation and change for our people, our organisation and the communities we serve. Over the past few years in particular our staff and residents have proved time and again their commitment to helping make change happen to benefit the most vulnerable people in our area. I am confident that together we will work through these challenges and continue to protect priority services and jobs whilst, delivering on our vision for Perth and Kinross as a place where people can live life well, free from poverty and inequality.”