Cautious welcome for increased Executive funding
Wednesday, December 13 2006
The Scottish Executive has today announced provisional details of the local government finance settlement for 2007/08.
For Scottish Borders Council, this provides a total Aggregate External Finance (AEF) of £191.5m, an increase of £9.7m (5.3%) over last year.
Giving a cautious welcome to the settlement, which is better than had been anticipated, SBC’s Finance spokesman Neil Calvert warned that the Council still faced considerable pressure in drawing up its budget for 2007/08: "Whilst this increase may at first glance seem generous, we have yet to study the settlement in detail but we are already aware that the Council faces cost pressures in excess of this increase in AEF next year from delivering additional commitments and initiatives demanded by the Scottish Executive, inflation and pay awards," he said.
Council Leader David Parker was equally cautious: "Whilst I welcome this increase in funding from the Executive, the Council still faces a significant challenge in making further efficiency savings and keeping Council Tax increases for next year to the minimum," he said. "The Administration will now work up its detailed budget proposals for presentation to the Council on 8 February 2007."
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