Fife Council’s revenue budget is showing a surplus of £26.2m, despite the tough financial climate.
The local authority also invested a record £172.5m in capital projects last year, although warnings have been sounded about increasingly challenging times to come.
Council leader Alex Rowley congratulated finance teams and officers for their sound financial management at a time when money is tight.
”People might think it’s strange that the full budget wasn’t spent last year,” he said. ”It’s important to understand that’s mainly because we didn’t have to dip into money set aside to cover things like the costs of another severe winter.
”We also saved money on loan charges because we borrowed less than expected at lower interest rates.
”We were properly prepared but the good news is the underspend from the revenue budget goes back into the council’s balances and we will decide how it is to be used in the 2013-14 budget.”
Schools manage their own finances and can carry forward up to 2.5% of their budget from one financial year to the next. This accounted for £3m of the council’s reported underspend.
The £172.5m capital investment represents 91.8% of the approved spending programme for 2011-12.