Voluntary sector umbrella organisation EVOC has released details of it’s submission to the city council’s budget consultation.
EVOC calls for honesty and transparency and urges the council to involve Third Sector organisations in the process to ‘grow the pool of knowledge available to reach cleverer sustainable solutions’.
Last week, city leaders said the council may need to consider delaying the finalisation of the city’s 2016/17 Budget due to the severity of the Local Government settlement.
Edinburgh’s proposed settlement figure sees a headline revenue reduction of some 4.5% – double that which was anticipated prior to last Wednesday’s announcement.
Council Leader Councillor Andrew Burns, said: “A reduction in revenue funding of the scale now being proposed, will undoubtedly have a negative impact on a whole range of vital services that local government is responsible for delivering: the children in our care, the elderly struggling with dementia whom we look after, and vulnerable adults whom we assist daily; all these individuals rely on the support that only a council can provide.
“Of course we will continue to work with our colleagues in COSLA, to try and reach an improved negotiated settlement, but given the Scottish Government has confirmed their final Budget will not be approved by Parliament until the end of February, we may now have to seriously consider delaying the finalisation of the city’s own budget for 2016/17.”
Council Deputy Leader, Sandy Howat, added: “A revenue cut of this scale would be very damaging for jobs and services within Scottish local government generally, and here in Edinburgh specifically – the harsh reality is that this will translate to real job cuts that hit real families, in real communities throughout our capital city. Everyone will be hurt by this.
“The City of Edinburgh Council is already facing significant workforce reductions, and very challenging budget decisions – Wednesday’s announcement makes all of that even more difficult, and we may well need to consider delaying the finalisation of our own budget for the city.”
Prior to this announcement, EVOC submitted a response to the Council as part of the wider 2016/17 Budget Consultation. This response included input from EVOC’s CEC Budget Challenge thinkSpace event held on Friday 27 November.
Read the full responses below:
- EVOC Budget Challenge Event – action note
- EVOC CEC Budget Consultation Response Letter Narrative
- EVOC CEC Proposals Detail
EVOC will release further information on the Council Budget as soon as it becomes available.
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