Edinburgh is balancing the books – but at a price

“Edinburgh is not out of the woods yet and it is still early days with many of its planned actions. But it is in a much stronger position to meet the challenges that lie ahead.” – Douglas Sinclair, Accounts Commission

The City of Edinburgh Council has made considerable progress towards balancing its books, the Accounts Commission has reported today – but critics say staff and service users are paying a heavy price in a ‘race to the bottom’. 

The local authority watchdog raised significant concerns in December 2014 over the council’s financial position, including a £67 million gap in savings required to meet future funding levels.

But a report published today says while it still faces major challenges, Edinburgh now has a clear strategy for reducing its spending through changing the way it delivers services and reducing its workforce. It met its £39 million savings target last year and is on track to achieve most of its planned savings for the current financial year.

Councillors and senior managers now have a shared understanding of the problems and the actions needed to solve them which will include some difficult decisions. Changes include a new ICT contract, more online transactions and a new workforce strategy which will see a reduction of five per cent of total staff numbers by the end of next month, saving £25 million a year.

In its findings, the Commission said it was encouraged by the response from the council to address its previous concerns. Like all local authorities, Edinburgh faces uncertainties about future finances and service demands but the Commission has specific concerns about the degree of risk around progress and delivery of the council’s plans.

Accounts Commission chair Douglas Sinclair said: “The council is now on a far sounder financial footing than it was a year ago. It has had to make tough choices on reconfiguring services and this hasn’t been an easy time, not least for its employees.

“Edinburgh is not out of the woods yet and it is still early days with many of its planned actions. But it is in a much stronger position to meet the challenges that lie ahead.”

Responding to the Accounts Commission report, Andy Wightman, Communities spokesperson for the Scottish Greens and MSP candidate for Lothian, said: “The Accounts Commission may well be praising Edinburgh for balancing its books but that has come with real pain for staff and service users.

“Among the 2,000 staff who are going are experienced and talented public officials who are hard to replace. And there is no way that cuts of £85 million this coming year alone can be made without frontline services being hit. Already community organisations are losing grant funding, libraries, parks and street cleaning are facing cuts and school support staff are looking at an uncertain future.

“This is the result of a race to the bottom on local council funding over the last 10 years. It all the more vital that in the next Parliament we strengthen and empower local authorities to give them that same financial autonomy that is take for granted across the rest of Europe.”