Highland Council members agreed a package of £54.634m savings as part of a three-year strategy to manage an estimated £113m budget gap at their meeting on Thursday.
£26.079m of these have been agreed for 2024/25, with further savings in years two and three of the plan.
A Council Tax freeze for 2024-25 was agreed, supported by an uplift from the Scottish Government of £6.865m.
Members also agreed an investment plan worth over £100m.
A total of £32.3m of reserves will support the necessary changes needed to redesign and hit savings targets. This includes £20m to support adult social care and deliver cost improvements.
Another £1.2m from reserves has also been agreed to build community capacity in the third sector and community groups in order to support training, mentoring and specialist support in areas such as health and social care.
A sum of £37m has been earmarked in the budget to meet inflationary and other cost pressures, and an additional £6m from reserves has been set aside for property maintenance towards areas of the estate most in need of urgent repairs.
Up to £60m of additional capital investment capacity is to be released through an additional £1m per annum of revenue investment in loan charge budgets over three years to support borrowing for capital.
This would significantly boost the council’s opportunity to invest in important capital projects.
Proposals for capital investment will be brought to council at a later date for consideration and approval.
Leader of the council Raymond Bremner said: “I am pleased that members have approved a three year financial plan which is the best possible strategy for dealing with scale of the financial context.
“Many of the ideas for savings and redesign came from engagement with our staff and the public and this has helped us shape our proposals.
“The plan agreed today allows for significant investment to take place and protect jobs across our communities. Work is under way now on the operational delivery of the budget, plans for which will be reported to the March full council meeting.”
Convener Bill Lobban added: “This plan today signals the start of significant activity to deliver the savings and improvements.
“Redesign is fundamental to supporting the necessary transformation in order to redesign our services, maximise our income generation and release longer term, sustainable savings.”
A delivery plan will be brought to the council meeting in March, setting out a programme of work and performance measures to deliver the savings and investment agreed.
The budget papers and a report on the public engagement feedback can be found at www.highland.gov.uk/budget
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