Sound financial management and significant efficiency savings mean that North Lanarkshire Council is in a position to finalise its spending plans for the next financial year and give consideration to both freezing council tax as well as significantly increasing budgets.

 

The council will make a decision on council tax levels as part of its overall budget for 2008/09 at a special council meeting on Thursday 14 February.

 

Council Leader, Councillor Jim McCabe, explains:

 

“The council has a strong track record of making best use of the limited resources available to it by managing our budgets effectively. This has allowed us to limit council tax increases to the lowest level possible, giving us one of the lowest cumulative increases in Scotland since 1996, while at the same time investing in improving the services that matter to our residents. This, along with over £20 million of efficiency savings between the current year and next, is allowing us to consider seriously the option of freezing council tax levels.

 

“The Scottish Government has made changes to the budget settlement for Scottish local authorities which it believes should allow councils to keep council tax bills at the same level as last year. We have been looking at ways of making this happen, and we will discuss this in detail at the council meeting on budget setting day next Thursday.

 

“The budget settlement remains very tight and we will still have tough decisions to make but I am confident that we can deliver a budget that will deliver quality services that meet the priorities of our residents and offer value for money.”

 

The council has previously agreed efficiency savings of over £10 million for the next year, which will be included in the money available for growth in the budget to be agreed next week.

 

Councillor John Pentland, Convener of the Finance and Customer Services Sub-Committee, said:

 

“North Lanarkshire Council has consistently kept council tax increases to the minimum and last year we delivered the lowest council tax level in the west of Scotland. We have also steadily increased our council tax collection rate to 94.65% last year, which means that we can maximise the income we receive and direct that money into frontline services that meet the needs of residents and communities. We are committed to continuing to meet our principles of delivering quality services through good financial management and best value – this is the whole drive behind our Service and People First programme.

 

“It is important for residents to know that if the council does decide to freeze council tax for the year ahead, they will still see an increase in their overall bill because of the increase to the water charge, announced by Scottish Water.

 

Ends