Ray of hope for projects hammered by Health & Social Care grant cuts
Up to 200 council jobs in the Capital will go as the SNP-Labour administration passed a controversial austerity budget which sees £33 million of cuts to vital public services across the city.
The Council says the budget for 2019/20 has a clear focus on protecting frontline services, investing in services for young people and the city’s most vulnerable residents. Council leaders say the budget takes on board the results learned from ‘extensive public consultation’.
Despite the swingeing cuts, the budget offers some hope to projects hammered by Health and Social Care cuts. Some money has been found for transitional support, but it remains to be seen whether this will be enough – or come in time -to save the affected projects. It’s already too late for some.
A raft of deputations spoke against the council’s budget plans. North Edinburgh Save Our Services, Edinburgh Tenants Federation, EVOC Children and Young Peoples Network, Edinburgh Trade Union Council, UNITE Edinburgh Not for Profit Branch, UNISON, Unite the Union (City of Edinburgh branch) and the Local Network Negotiating Committee for Teachers all argued against council cuts.
The North Edinburgh SOS deputation was again led by by community activists Sean Fitzharris and Penny Donnelly, who spoke at the recent North West Locality Committee meeting. They repeated their call for transitional funding for local projects hammered by Health and Social Care funding cuts and were supported this time by Community Action North manager Julie Smith.
The voluntary sector is hit particularly hard by council budget cuts. Speaking as part of the EVOC Children and Young People’s Nework deputation, Citadel Youth Centre’s Willie Barr said a 35% cut to the voluntary sector is disproportionate.
Councillors from all sides took the opportunity to make contributions and the meeting continued late into the afternoon before the vote was taken. The Lib Dems budget motion – which included a last minute £200,000 to support projects affected by Health and Social Care cuts – fell first, followed by the Greens.
The Conservative group is currently the biggest on the council with 17 members, and they put forward budget proposals which would have seen an end to the controversial tram extension to Newhaven. The Tories said scrapping the ‘vanity project’ would free up £90m for vital public services.
The Conservative budget motion could not gain the support of other parties, however, and the combined SNP and Labour administration vote comfortably won the day.
Councillors agreed a £1bn package of spending for the next financial year as part of a four-year ‘Change Strategy’. Designed to meet the changing demands of the city and its residents, the strategy “targets the delivery of high-quality services, while maximising income, investing in prevention and early intervention and ensuring sustainable and inclusive growth”.
In 2019/20, the Council will invest:
- £66.7m on new or refurbished primary and secondary schools across the city
- £59.3m on early years services, doubling provision by April 2020
- £48.9m for asset management works, as part of five-year £153m investment programme
- £30m towards fixing potholes and resurfacing roads, as part of four-year £125m roads programme
- £11m to upgrade street lighting to energy efficient LED lights
- £5m in improving active travel and £2.4m on cycling projects.
Additional investments will be made in:
- Health and Social Care: up to £15.7m of additional investment to reflect increasing demand, new legislation and to contribute to better outcomes for service users
- Homelessness: fund Rapid Access Accommodation pilot and provide funding for one housing officer in each locality focussed on preventing homelessness. This builds on the £2m of extra investment included in the 2018/19 budget
- Supported bus services – £0.250m towards enhanced services in rural west Edinburgh.
Whilst making the required savings of £33m for the next 12 months, significant investment will continue in those services have residents identified as being most important. These include:
- £7.3m Pupil Equity Funding aimed at addressing the attainment gap in schools
- £1.5m additional funding for looked-after children (continued from 18/19)
- £3m additional funding to address rising rolls, including pupils in need of additional support
All means to maximise income will also be explored, such as full cost recovery for major events and generating additional income from the Council’s outdoor advertising contract, including tram stops.
Cllr Adam McVey, Council Leader, said: “As a council, we are working hard to ensure all residents can share in Edinburgh’s success. This budget lives up to that commitment. It is a strong budget for the city and for our residents, particularly those most in need of our support.
“In the coming year, we are investing well over £100m more in schools and early years, giving every child in Edinburgh the best start in life; we are committing record levels of investment in our roads, including almost £30m on potholes and resurfacing works in the next year alone; and we are allocating up to an additional £16m to address the increasing demands on our health and social care services.
“It is a budget that allows us to invest in key frontline services but also one that allows us to continue investing in the huge ambition we have for our capital city – ensuring our economy and public services are more inclusive so everyone can enjoy the benefits of sustainable and well-managed growth.
“Securing the powers to introduce a tourist tax and Workplace Parking Levy, which we explore further, will help towards this goal in future years, allowing us to target investment towards those areas that support and sustain our growth and success while confronting the challenges that come with it.”
The council says public engagement is a key part of setting the budget: more than 2,700 residents had their say between October 2018 and February 2019 on the four-year strategy and budget proposals for 2019/20.
Cllr Cammy Day, Depute Leader, said: “When we launched our budget process back in October, we said that engaging with residents at every stage would be key.
“Thanks to their feedback, we have restored funding for primary school teachers in nurseries, provided transitional funding for Marketing Edinburgh and reviewed our proposals for Edinburgh Leisure, alongside continued funding for smaller sports organisations.
“We have also allocated additional funding to the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board to respond to increasing demands on social care and to support voluntary sector transition following the recent grants process.
“I’m pleased that, despite ever-greater financial pressures, we have once again set a balanced budget for the year ahead but we must continue to look forward and our change strategy lays out ambitious plans for the next four years – taking a strategic view in the interests of a growing and successful city.”
The tax band levels for Edinburgh in 2019/20 will be:
A – £851.60
B – £993.53
C – £1135.47
D – £1277.40
E – £1678.36
F – £2075.78
G – £2501.58
H – £3129.63
“Ambitious plans for the next four years”.
So cuts of £33 million to local public services are coming your way in the next financial year – and the pain doesn’t end there. The Council estimates that it will need to save a further £150m by 2023. Who said austerity is over?
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