Council's annual package of facts and figures

by EWAN LAMB

Total payments made to the top team of nine officers at Scottish Borders Council exceeded the remuneration paid to all of the authority's 34 elected members, according to figures contained in the unaudited accounts for 2021/22.

The newly-published document shows the cost of paying leading officials in the directorate rose by more than 21% last year from £651,957 in 2020/21 to £791,308 in the financial year to March 2022. Two officers were paid more than £100,000 - chief executive Netta Meadows received £136,081 while David Robertson, director of finance and corporate governance was paid £113,258.

Meanwhile, over the same period the remuneration to councillors was up by 7.4% from £686,000 to £737,000. 

In a Foreword to the accounts the council's newly elected leader Councillor Euan Jardine writes: "Despite an extremely challenging operating environment during 2021/22 the Council achieved the following: delivered a responsive approach to supporting communities, businesses and vulnerable individuals through the ongoing COVID-19 recovery period. The Council administered almost £74 million of grants to local businesses during the pandemic with funding also provided to those in financial hardship

"Transformed homecare services through the roll out of mobile handheld technology to over 400 staff, optimising the scheduling of care visits and improving staff safety;  Achieved £9.3 million of  Financial Plan savings, £3.5m of which were on a permanent recurring basis; Delivered a net underspend of £1.427 million from a revenue budget of £294.7 million; and Delivered new investment in assets for the Borders of £59.6 million in schools, flood protection, roads and other assets."

And Mr Jardine goes on to say: "The next year presents many opportunities and challenges for the Council including:  the Council’s ongoing recovery from COVID-19;  the continued delivery of the Council’s transformation programme; delivery of IT transformation through the digital strategy;  delivery of the major construction elements of the Hawick Flood Protection Scheme; Progress delivery of Galashiels, Peebles and Hawick High Schools and Earlston Primary School and Health Centre; Collaborate with South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) on the delivery of the wider Regional Economic Partnership including Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal and City Deal."

The nuts and bolts of SBC's finances are detailed in a management commentary signed off by Mr Robertson.

It says: " A key pillar of the Council’s longer term planning is a transformation programme which aims to deliver a Council that is adaptable, efficient and effective, and one ultimately capable of not only meeting the challenges ahead, but of fully optimising outcomes for the citizens and communities for which it is responsible. 

"The programme is designed to deliver savings in a more cross cutting, permanent and sustainable way in the future, through a planned series of service reviews. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a fundamental impact on the way the Council is organised and in the way the Council delivers services. In future greater reliance will be placed on technology to modernise the Council."

 A Corporate Financial Risk Register was used as the basis for setting reserve levels in 2021/22 and future years. 

The commentary explains: "This approach seeks to quantify the risks facing the Council’s finances, including over optimistic saving assumptions, unplanned employment and pension costs, the failure by managers to enact effective budgetary control, severe weather events, an economic downturn, potential contractual claims and unplanned emergencies in deriving an appropriate level of unallocated balances. 

"This approach, despite being subject to an element of informed judgement, reflects the risks inherent in setting the revenue budget, the scale and complexity of the organisation and the reasons reserves are held in the first place. The accumulated financial risk in the 2021/22 Risk Register was assessed to be £12.895m and the projected usable General Fund balance, at £6.315m, was sufficient to cover 49% of risks identified."

 Overall, Financial Plan savings of £9.301 million were delivered during 2021/22 in order to balance the costs of delivering services and the available resources. The regular budget monitoring reports to the Executive Committee tracked the delivery of these savings against the Financial Plan proposals. The total savings of £9.301 million are made up of £5.148 million savings included in the 2021/22 financial plan plus £4.153 million brought forward from previous years. 

"To date the Council’s approach to longer term financial planning has delivered permanent savings of £66 million. Ongoing effort will be required going forward to successfully deliver the Financial Plan due to the scale of further savings required in 2022/23 and beyond and the challenges now posed through COVID-19 recovery and current economic challenges."

 In conclusion, Mr Robertson states: "The operating environment for the Council continues to be very challenging. The Council is faced with a number of financial and economic influences such as increasing demands on services, current inflation affecting the costs of goods and services and wider labour market factors affecting the Council’s ability to recruit to fill key vacancies in a number of areas. New digital innovations, business process re-engineering and technology solutions continue to be pursued in order for the Council to deliver vital services to the community as efficiently and effectively as possible."

The accounts show the council funded four exit packages in 2021/22 with the highest single pay-off given as £63,585. In the previous financial year three exit packages cost the council £30,151.

Costs associated with the underwriting of PPP (Public Private Partnership) schools are also given in the report. The sum payable in 2022/23 is £15.152 million while the total amount outstanding stands at £317.130 million.

SBC also forked out £10.144 million in interest payments on loans (£11.943 million in 2020/21). The total debt figure has been reduced from £220.793 million last year to £215.326 million at the end of March 2022.