Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Angus Council’s funding black hole gets deeper

Angus Council's headquarters in Forfar.
Angus Council's headquarters in Forfar.

Angus Council expects to have to find millions of pounds in extra savings as its financial outlook has deteriorated.

The cash-strapped council projected in March there would be a funding gap of £26.5m in the three years from 2017/18 to 2019/20.

The outlook has darkened and council officers now predict the gap over the next three years will be £31.1m, an increase of £4.6m.

There is a large amount of uncertainty as the level of Government grant for next year is still unknown.

However, officers are taking a “more pessimistic view” of the settlement and have shifted the council’s baseline projections.

This would mean that savings of £11.7m – more than five per cent of the overall budget – would be required next year for the council to break-even.

The funding gap is projected at £9.6m in 2018/19, £9.8m in 2019/20 and another £9.6m in 2020/21 – savings of £40m are needed over four years.

Another cost pressure has been the introduction of an apprenticeship levy.

Officers have prepared projections based on more optimistic and more pessimistic views of what its future income and costs may be.

Its optimistic view sees £23m of savings required over the next three years. Its pessimistic view is that £39.1m of savings will be needed.

The report noted that most difficult element of the projections was predicting what the government grant would be, with no guidance currently available.

It adds: “The UK Chancellor will make the Autumn Statement announcement on November 23.

“The Scottish Government will announce the results of its 2016 Spending Review thereafter, with announcements relating to grant allocations to councils unlikely to be made until mid-late December.

“It remains to be seen whether the new UK Government takes the same approach to public finances and austerity as that which the Government led by David Cameron applied.

“The projections assume a continuation of severe financial constraint and austerity but the new Government’s policy in this respect will not be known until November 23.”

The council recorded a £2m uncommitted underspend last year which will be used to mitigate against future cuts.

Council leader Iain Gaul said the council would “rise to any challenge” and added that it wasn’t afraid to make “difficult decisions”.

He said: “Angus Council is not surprised at the continued pressure on public sector finances. There is a lot of uncertainty in the UK and beyond right now.

“The real challenge is how we continue to provide high quality outcomes for our citizens and those who need us the most in these difficult times.

“Many people want to focus on the money.

“For us the real test ahead is how we ensure services are delivered, and delivered well.

“The efforts of this council will be focused on that task.

“It is clear things will not stay the same.

“Many changes have taken place in the past few years, more will certainly come.

“In Angus the budgets will be managed and challenges faced.

“We will undoubtedly be a different council in the years ahead but our commitment to delivering high quality outcomes for our citizens remains.”