Fife Council’s minority Labour administration has officially unveiled its budget proposals for the coming year.
They include an 8.2% increase in council tax and a 6% rent hike for council tenants – but no cuts are proposed for education as previously feared.
The proposals come ahead of Thursday’s debate at Fife House in Glenrothes.
If the administration’s plans are approved, the increases would come into effect from April 1.
The council tax rise for Fife is thought to be the highest since the SNP imposed a freeze in 2007.
Council leader David Ross (Labour) said: “We’re back to looking at a significant gap between what we have to spend to keep services running at the current level and how much money we’re bringing.”
‘Impact for families’
The proposed 8.2% council tax increase is lower than the 10% rise that Mr Ross initially predicted, but nonetheless is higher than previous increases.
He partially blamed the council tax freeze last year which the Scottish Government mandated for all 32 Scottish councils.
He also blamed the pressures around health and social care’s budgets for the steep rise.
“This has been one of the hardest budgets we’ve had for a long time,” Mr Ross said.
“We know asking people to pay more on council tax is going to have an impact for families, but cutting back on vital local services is going to have more of an impact – particularly on the most vulnerable.
“We’re trying to get the balance right.”
Investment
The administration is not proposing any cuts to the £457 million education budget this year, and it has rejected proposals to cut the number of Pupil Support Assistants (PSAs) and to reduce school transport mileage.
Mr Ross said: “We recognise across Scotland there is a problem with behaviour in schools and PSAs are on the frontline of that.”
Although there are no specific cuts for education, the Labour proposals would ask all services – including education – to reduce budgets by 0.5% in the coming year.
Those efficiencies would save the council £4 million in total.
The Labour budget is also proposing to invest more money into health and social care services upfront this year.
Fife Council is due to set its budget on February 20.
Conversation