The council budget
Every year the council agrees Council Tax charges and allocations of funding to council service areas for the 12 months ahead.
The money you pay in Council Tax generates around 24% of our income.
- Council Tax – 24%
- RSG incl. Business Rates – 66%
- Other Government Grants – 10%
Budget headlines
- the Revenue Support Grant (RSG) received from the Scottish Government will increase by £10.096m, but this includes £8.494m to support new commitments within Education and Health and Social Care and £2.296m which has been provided for one year only. This means that the council has seen an overall reduction of £0.734m in its permanent funding.
- there is £3.706m additional funding to support Education priorities including additional teachers and pupil support workers and the removal of instrumental music and Core Curriculum charging
- there is £4.788m of funding to support a wide range of interventions in Health and Social Care
- Council Tax will rise by 3% in 2022/23
- £1.5m of investment in an Economic Recovery fund to support businesses and low income households
- £91,000 of additional funding to support enhanced youth work in communities for a two-year period
- a £10 discount scheme on coastal car parking season passes
- investment in new, improved or expanded local schools and infrastructure with a £345m programme of capital investment over five years
- there will be no increase in rent levels for tenants living in council properties - rents in East Lothian will remain among the lowest in Scotland and support investment in new build council housing
- a £193m investment over five years in council housing, including significant expenditure on new homes and the modernisation or extension of others
- the council will draw on £8.690m of reserves to help set a balanced budget in 2022/23
- the council will continue to review how we do things - ensuring we remain as efficient as possible by introducing further innovation, new ways of working and helping to reduce expenditure and/or increase income