Shetland Islands Council will grab £3.5m from its reserves to balance its 2019/20 budget. The reserves raid comes after the council was unable to reduce its service expenditure to the level it outlined in its medium-term financial plan. A report to a council meeting last week by executive manager for finance, Jamie Manson, read: 'The council has faced growth in both the cost of delivering services and genuine growth in demand for services, particularly with regard to social care, children's and infrastructure services. 'The council has a track record of using its reserves to supplement the funding received from the Scottish Government and council tax receipts. However, the one-off use of reserves to meet a recurrent deficit is unsustainable and exceeds the levels that this council considers to be sustainable in the longer-term, without eroding the investment base. 'Despite the work done so far, sustainability, in particular, is extremely challenging at this time with reducing Scottish Government funding continuing, with no indication of change or a return to pre-2010 levels of funding for local government. The council is setting a budget that is affordable in 2019/20 but not sustainable for the future.'
展开▼
