ONCE again, it is time for the annual budget discussions to start, as the council begins the process of making decisions for the next three years about where resources should be used, what the priorities are and where any money should be spent. For me, it brings a great sense of déjà vu, as we face many of the same challenges that we have faced at this time of year since I was first elected in May 2017.

One is the question around the demographics of East Lothian, for example how do we square the circle of continuing to provide the same level of service as the county grows in sizes, or how do we continue to provide services for our older citizens as the county’s population continues to grow older. Another is how to close the substantial hole that exists in the council’s budget without damaging the frontline services people in our communities rely upon. As it stands, that figure we will need to close this year sits at around £8 million.

These issues, of course, are only becoming more compounded by the effects of the pandemic on the council’s finances. These effects will have a long-term impact around the council’s financial health as we see a fall in council tax income while at the same time having to deal with rising costs caused by the pandemic and spikes in demand for some services.

This all comes without really knowing the final details of what the total budget the council will have to spend is. This is due to the Scottish Government not yet having produced its own budget or having told councils what they will be receiving this coming financial year. For context, the issue is that two thirds of the council’s budget comes from the Scottish Government via the revenue support grant, so without clarity to what we will be able to spend, decision-making becomes harder.

The Scottish Government’s budget has increased substantially this year, going up by some £1.3 billion thanks to the UK Government; that figure also does not include the large sum of additional funding given to the Scottish Government to help address the pandemic. That is roughly a four per cent increase in funding to Holyrood and I would hope that we would see a similar level of investment passed on to protect services in East Lothian.

For context, if we did see that four per cent uplift being passed on in full, it would see another £5 million being spent here in East Lothian on local services and priorities. I think that would be fair and reasonable.

That has not been the case in past years, as when we have seen the Scottish Government budget go up, we have seen the budget for services in East Lothian go down.