Budget Statement

Budget Leader Cllr Alister Mackinnon responded to the Scottish Government’s revised budget settlement.

He said: “Further to receiving detailed information yesterday evening, we now have a more accurate picture of what this means for Highland.

“The new settlement provides £4.228M additional cash, contrary to other figures reported. This gives us a little more flexibility, but still leaves us faced with a very challenging budget situation. We now need to consider how we can best use this money, bearing in mind our Reserves are below the recommended amount and we have considerable risk moving forward in future years.

“The Government have also now given Local Authorities the ability to raise additional money from charging communities higher Council Tax, by lifting the cap above 3%. We have had a lot of feedback from the public about income generation, but we are aware of many household’s already with stretched financial circumstances. So we will need to carefully consider now to what extent we should use this power.”

He added: “We plan to launch our consultation on the Tourist levy later in February as agreed by Council in December.”