Budget

The Council has a set amount of money each year to deliver the range of services it provides to the residents of Scottish Borders. This year we are implementing a five year financial plan to ensure we are prepared for the challenges we will face over the next five years.

The money

The council has a budget of just over £260 million each year for the next five years. This is what is used to deliver the wide range of services provided by the Council. Find out more about where this money comes from and how we spend the money:

Where the money comes from

Where we spend the money

Each department is allocated a proportion of this budget to deliver their services. See the budget allocation by department for 2012/13 and some examples of how the departments use the budget in the Borders:

Chief Executive - £1.37m Responsible for efficient and effective operation of the Council and its business. Find out more about the services delivered by the Chief Executive department.

Resources - £18.952m Responsible for a wide range of services internally as well as to the public including call centres and assessing a variety of applications from benefits to blue badges and license requests. Find out more about services delivered by Resources.

Education and Lifelong Learning - £94.366m The largest single department responsible for two main areas, schools (including the education of over 15,000 pupils in 72 schools across the Borders) and Community services (including libraries and museums.) Find out more about services delivered by Education and Lifelong Learning.

Social Work - £75.62m They provide support to over 11,000 people in the Borders and are responsible for  social care and health of adult and children, as well as housing and criminal justice. Find out more about the services delivered by Social Work.

Environment and Infrastructure - £31.358m Responsible for Economy and the Environment, Planning and regulatory services (including planning and building standards,) Neighbourhood Services and Environment and Infrastructure (including roads and lighting.) Find out more about the services delivered by Environment and Infrastructure.

Police and Fire - £17.032m Our share of the funding towards the cost of fire and police services in the Borders.

Corporate Programmes, Projects and Partnership (CPPP) and Other - £25.497m - The CPPP supports programmes of work and projects across the business, often with partners. Other expenses include financing costs to support some of the council's capital projects.

The future

Due to increased pressures on the budget but no increase in the money available over the next 5 years, difficult decisions are going to have to be made which could potentially have an impact on how we deliver services to you. This is where we need your input. Find out more about the challenges and how you can have your say.