A month-long opportunity to influence the council’s spending priorities before the next budget is set in February has gone live.
The launch of the consultation comes as the city responds to the Covid-19 pandemic, while at the same time starting the long process of recovery and renewal, all against a backdrop of increasing pressures on council budgets.
Willie Sawers, deputy convener of Dundee City Council’s policy and resources committee and spokesperson on finance, said: “With Covid still not behind us and with less money from UK government, increasing demands on some services and growing expectations, helping us to identify what the council’s spending priorities should be is now more important than ever.
“Each year more and more people are making their voices heard by taking part in the budget consultation and those opinions make a difference.
“Decisions that are taken as part of the budget setting process are influenced by what we hear from the consultation, which is why we want to make sure as many people as possible take part.
“Before your elected representatives take the difficult decisions about exactly how the council’s resources will be allocated please tell us where you think those limited funds should be focussed.”
The council expects to have to save £10m in the next financial year depending on funding settlements before the costs of responding to the pandemic are factored in. These figures are also before any additional income from annual increases in the current level of council tax are considered.
It is expected that the Local Government Finance Settlement will be announced in late January and in February a report will be submitted to the council’s policy and resources committee detailing the grant settlement and what it means for the council’s budget. This report will also include the proposed procedure for setting the revenue budget and council tax for 2021/22 in March.
Cllr Sawers added: “There is a considerable amount of information to be factored in to drawing up the council’s budget and the feedback from the consultation process helps us to have a better handle on what people in Dundee are thinking, which in turn helps us to make more informed financial decisions.
“Council services are used by everyone who lives and works in Dundee and our decisions directly affect them, so it is vital that as many people as possible take part in the consultation.”
Dundee City Council’s budget consultation launches today (Tuesday) and can be found at https://bit.ly/budgetDCC
It will be open until the end of the month.
Dundee City Council
Dundee draws skilled workers from a 60-minute catchment population of 640,000 and has a local population of over 140,000. The availability of a large pool of highly skilled labour is a key feature in the Dundee economy. Flexibility in the labour force is currently more prevalent in Dundee than in Scotland as a whole. All forms of labour market flexibility - part-time, temporary employment, self-employment and shift work - are widely operational within the city. Labour force stability in the city is excellent, enabling companies to plan with confidence. Labour turnover levels are less than 5% and absenteeism averages 2%.
