Next Year's Council Tax
Yesterday councillors and officials started the formal thinking about next year's budget and Council Tax.
Edinburgh has the lowest government grant per head of any Council in Scotland. We also have enormous pressures to spend more on maintaining the fabric of the city, because of our prosperity, and more on the services we provide, because our population is changing. So it's not going to be an easy process.
Last year we kept your Council Tax increase down to a just-under-inflation level of 2.3% and we still have the lowest Council Tax of any of the main Scottish cities. We managed this last year because we spent almost all the Council's available reserves.
The Liberal Democrats last year wanted to increase your Council Tax by 4%. But they weren't going to spend the extra money on the people of Edinburgh - they just wanted to keep it in the bank. The Conservatives, of course, wanted to cut spending across the board - including teachers and schools.
Edinburgh Labour is determined to keep the rate of Council tax increase at or below the rate of inflation. But we are also determined to care as best we can for the city and its people and, most important, to continue to find the investment to sustain the City's hard-won prosperity. We've got some hard work to do ourselves, of course, but there's no doubt we'll also need government help if we are to achieve both those things. A difficult few months ahead.
Edinburgh has the lowest government grant per head of any Council in Scotland. We also have enormous pressures to spend more on maintaining the fabric of the city, because of our prosperity, and more on the services we provide, because our population is changing. So it's not going to be an easy process.
Last year we kept your Council Tax increase down to a just-under-inflation level of 2.3% and we still have the lowest Council Tax of any of the main Scottish cities. We managed this last year because we spent almost all the Council's available reserves.
The Liberal Democrats last year wanted to increase your Council Tax by 4%. But they weren't going to spend the extra money on the people of Edinburgh - they just wanted to keep it in the bank. The Conservatives, of course, wanted to cut spending across the board - including teachers and schools.
Edinburgh Labour is determined to keep the rate of Council tax increase at or below the rate of inflation. But we are also determined to care as best we can for the city and its people and, most important, to continue to find the investment to sustain the City's hard-won prosperity. We've got some hard work to do ourselves, of course, but there's no doubt we'll also need government help if we are to achieve both those things. A difficult few months ahead.
posted by Councillor Ewan Aitken at
1:25 pm
