Recognising the impact the pandemic and inflation has had on households, councillors agreed to restrict the Council Tax increase to 2.5%. That means a £33 increase in Council Tax for a Band D property.

The 2022/23 final budget protects the provision of free swimming lessons for primary school pupils, the removal of school crossing patrollers, and freezes the service charges and costs for hiring community campus spaces. Savings on the winter maintenance budget have also been rejected, and instead an additional £100,000 is being invested in additional gully cleaning, and a further £4 million in the local roads and bridges infrastructure over the next two years.

Investment has also been announced to support young people, families and business in dealing with the impact and disruption caused by the pandemic. The budget includes the continuation of almost £100,000 of investment targeting resources aimed at getting all children disadvantaged by long periods of home learning back on track with their studies.

A total of £136,000 has been allocated to support additional staff at our secondary schools to continue access to national qualifications and foundation apprenticeships. A further £200,000 has been committed to the Open for Business Fund to help town centre businesses to update street frontages and support the re-use of empty properties. £76,000 will go to help increase the capacity of the Council’s Welfare Rights Team who work to help individuals and families in Perth and Kinross in financial need access their full benefit entitlement.

Creating more opportunities for employment is also a priority, with £200,000 invested in Get Into Care a major re-employment training and recruitment programme to encourage and assist more people to choose care as a career. £100,000 to fund financially disadvantaged residents to upskill in coding and data analytics to allow them to future proof their careers.

A further £100,000 is being directed towards running four accelerator programmes, complementing Business Gateway delivery to support high growth start-up businesses in clean growth, engineering, food and drink and creative industries.

To support communities to deliver on local ambitions, the budget extends the current Community Investment Fund by pledging a further £100,000, meaning a total of £400,000 will be available in the coming year for direct grants to community groups. £100,000 will also be invested in food security, building on the strength of the programmes already available through schools, and supporting the expansion of community groups which have emerged over the last two years.

To support the delivery of the Perth & Kinross Offer, £80,000 is also being made available for equipment, training or other measures which can build community capacity to create local solutions to local issues. To help communities to re-use buildings in their area and access matched or external funding, a £150,000 investment is being made in a pilot fund to enable community asset transfers.

Councillor Murray Lyle, council leader, said: “In financially challenging times this budget reaffirms our commitment to our key priorities of education and families, economic wellbeing, communities, climate change, the environment and infrastructure, and changes to how the Council operates to deliver effective public services.

“Over the past two years we have worked hard with communities during the most trying of times. This budget underlines how we will continue to keep citizens at the heart of our approach. Delivering on the ethos of the Perth & Kinross Offer by helping communities to help each other, we are creating access to grant funding to support community groups to turn their ideas into reality for their area. We are also funding key organisations who help some of the most vulnerable people in our area, helping to ensure that all of our residents live life well.”