Council Tax and Spending

All councils are dealing with very significant rising costs including energy, supplies, inflation, interest rate rises and the cost of borrowing.

Our income has not kept pace with the cost of delivering services, at a time when East Lothian is one of Scotland’s fastest growing areas.

1. Council Tax from new houses doesn’t cover the cost of services

While people living in new housing pay Council Tax that previously wasn’t available as income, this doesn’t cover the cost of providing services to them - like schools, bin collections or social care.

In 2024/25, a Band D household will continue pay £1435.62 in Council Tax (excluding the charge for water and sewerage which is collected on Scottish Water’s behalf by the council and will increase). The council spends around £6,705 annually for every child in primary school. We spend £7,936 for every child in secondary school. We spend more than £180 per household on waste disposal services. We spend £74 per household on roads. We spend £118, per household on landscape and countryside management.

2. East Lothian is one of the fastest growing areas in Scotland

It is projected that the population will reach over 120,000 by 2037 – about 1,000 a year. This puts extra demand on the council for services.  The number of children aged up to 15 will grow by over 15%, so we need to build new schools as well as extensions to others. The number of people aged 75 or over will double, with implications for care services.

The Scottish Government requires the council to identify sites for new housing development and sets the number of houses that need to be built over a given period. The council’s powers to reject applications for new housing are limited and refusals can be, and have been, overturned by Scottish Government ministers following appeals by the developers.

3. Developer contributions are just for one-off costs

While developers help fund the new infrastructure like schools, they don’t pay towards the cost of staffing or running services. The council doesn’t have the power to change this.

4. Much of our spending is ‘ring-fenced’ by the Scottish Government

This is money used to pay for new and additional national government commitments, such as expanding funded early learning and childcare hours. However, at the same time, funding for core council services is reducing while demand for our services is growing. Our cost base to deliver services is growing. For example, staffing costs are significantly different.

5. Half of what the council spends is on Education and Children’s Services

Around a fifth of all council spending is money delegated to the Integration Joint Board who deliver health and social care in East Lothian.

The remaining 25% meets the cost of all other council services including waste services, roads, libraries, parks and open spaces, sport and leisure, planning and environmental health. This doesn’t include the costs of providing council housing, which is fully funded from rents paid by the tenants.

6. Reducing costs and increasing income

These pressures will  likely continue in the years ahead, with the council continuing to face a funding gap.

We are looking at new ways of bringing in income to help pay for services, like introducing a charge for the garden waste collection (brown bin) service and exploring scope for parking charges, as many other councils have done. We also need to look for efficiencies and change the way some services are delivered, for example using digital technology - making it easier to use our online customer services which is convenient for residents and cost-effective for the council.

Read about the budget measures and savings agreed by the council on 20 February 2024.