Council Budgets on Target (09/06/09)

Highland Councillors are being advised that Services have not only fully delivered the capital budget (buildings and vehicle purchase) but achieved a significant underspend on the revenue budget (day-to-day spending), which will help offset other pressures.
 
The good news is reported by Alan Geddes, Depute Chief Executive and Director of Finance, in his “Near Final” monitoring reports on 2008/9 spending to the Council’s Resources Committee which meets on Wednesday.
 
Mr Geddes reports that Services spent £73.27 million in the 2008/9 capital programme.   A further £11.6 million was spent on the Council’s housing capital programme to improve the condition of the Council’s housing stock of 14,000 homes.

At the same time, Services recorded an underspend of £6 million on day to day spending, not least through introducing a number of measures to deliver services more efficiently.
 
Councillor Carolyn Wilson, Chairman of the Resources Committee, welcomed the budget reports.
 
She said: “This is good news all round for the Council and demonstrates good management of our budgets over the past year. Much of the £85 million capital spending is sustaining our local construction sector at a time of recession and this must be good news for our economy. The underspend on our revenue budget is, in part, due to efficiencies we continue to make and means that our balances can be largely protected. This will be important as we endeavour to protect service delivery against some challenging times ahead.”
 
She paid tribute to Directors for bringing budgets in on target and urged them to maintain tight management of budgets.
 
-ends-