Elected members on the City of Edinburgh Council have today agreed options for investing around £21m in one-off additional funding.
In February, the Council set a balanced budget for 2021/22, addressing and shaped by the key priorities of the Council Business Plan – tackling poverty, promoting sustainability and enhancing residents’ wellbeing.
Following confirmation by the Scottish Government of additional funding for local authorities and, after making provision for the anticipated on-going financial impacts of the pandemic over the next two years, Council officers identified up to £21m which could be made available to address budget pressures, anticipated shortfalls in savings delivery and other member priorities in 2021/22 and 2022/23.
At today's meeting of the Full Council, political groups on the Council put forward and debated motions outlining their proposals for directing these monies. The motion by the Coalition was carried, meaning the £21m will be invested as below.
Councillor Rob Munn, Finance and Resources Convener, said:
When our Council budget was agreed in February, the final local government settlement was not known in full. At the time we set a prudent Budget in the knowledge that we would have other decisions to make following clarification of the final settlement. That final settlement was more than we had anticipated and I'm very pleased that we've been able to agree these investments in Council today, helping us to meet our commitments and to ensure that we address poverty, well-being and the climate challenge.
Councillor Joan Griffiths, Finance and Resources Vice Convener, said:
The Covid19 pandemic has had a very significant impact on local government budgets so it's very welcome to be able to invest more money now towards our core priorities for Edinburgh. The proposals now approved will give a real boost to our work to achieve our core ambitions for the Capital - tackling poverty and inequality, boosting sustainability and enhancing wellbeing for everyone who calls the city home. I particularly welcome our decision to invest £250,000 in a fund to support carers after the extremely challenging time they’ve faced during the pandemic, as well as our £600,000 investment in prevention services and community engagement to support residents at risk of poverty.
AGREED INVESTMENT OPTIONS:
Roads and Pavements Infrastructure – recognising the impact of prolonged winter weather the Council will invest an additional £2m extra in repairs to the roads and pavements network including local residential areas and an extra £4m to improve surface condition for all users – those walking, wheeling, cycling, using public transport and motorists.
Street Cleaning and gritting – we will invest £300k to improve both street cleansing operations and winter gritting making our streets cleaner and safer.
Communal Bins – £1.1 million in this programme to improve organisation and capacity in communal bins across the city, bringing forward investment to improve the service and address the funding shortfall in delivering the programme in full.
Public Conveniences – the £450,000 Council has already approved to invest will ensure a temporary network of public conveniences at key locations, meeting accessibility needs in premier parks and other locations where people need facilities.
Estate Energy Reduction – a further £500,000 to improve Council estate carbon performance to meet the climate challenge by identifying shovel-ready projects.
Carbon net zero engagement – £700,000 to take forward citizen communication and engagement to bring about behaviour change assisting the city in reaching carbon net zero target.
EV Infrastructure – £250,000 to expand EV charging infrastructure for the Council's own fleet, ensuring that the Council leads by example by making our vehicle fleet carbon zero.
Up Recycling – £200,000 to improve the Council's recycling performance.
20-minute neighbourhoods – £500,000 to drive forward the delivery of 20-minute neighbourhoods, making it easier for people to get to and access the services they need in their community.
Food Growing – £130,000 to be invested, recognising the increase in demand for local food growing opportunities. This is investment to expand provision.
Looked after Children – recognising the pressures of out of authority placement, the Council will invest £1.5m to improve the service and help ensure vulnerable children are accommodated in authority wherever possible.
Children & Families Development officers – £124,000 to provide service for disabled children in terms of holiday provision and positive destinations.
Carers’ Recovery Fund – recognising the extra challenge for carers during the pandemic, the Council will invest £250k in a fund providing additional support to carers
Edinburgh Summer Festivals – £300,000 to support resumption of festivals this summer including support for local community festivals
Books for libraries - £50,000 increase in this year’s allocation for new books in our libraries, improving choice and service to Edinburgh residents
Embedding Prevention and Community Engagement – £600,000 investment to improve delivery of prevention services through empowering frontline staff to co-produce service redesign across departments, reform current practice, and create a preventative service and community engagement model and develop a plan for wider roll out.
Diversity and inclusion – £100,000 to accelerate and embed the Council’s diversity and inclusion strategy, including training and development training
Taxi and Licence enforcement – £160,000 to meet demand and ensure robust enforcement.
Edinburgh Integration Joint Board – £2.5m funding to EIJB to address base budget pressures for social care.
Independent inquiries – £400,000 funding for these inquiries to bring them to their conclusion.
Place fees and charges reduced income – £559,000 to address issues with reduced income due to the Covid-19 pandemic changing behaviours and the impact on fees and charges.
Home to School Travel Demand – £600,000 to meet demand in this service while working to reshape and achieve savings.
Development and Business Services Loss of Income – invest £187,000 to cover loss of Planning, Building Services and Regulatory Services income.
Early Years Deferral - The Council will allocate up to £270,000 over the full academic year (two financial years) to offer the 40 nursery children who applied for deferral and were not among the 66 approved through application of appeal a funded place for another year due to lost time through COVID-related nursery closures.
All Ability Bike - Work is ongoing to find a solution to ensure the service is still available and the Council is investing £71,000 to help facilitate this and ensure transport is inclusive.
In addition to these investments, further funding has been set aside to address the following:
Edinburgh Bike Hire Scheme – the approved Coalition motion states: "We recognise the popularity of the current scheme and seek to continue with a cost-effective and robust scheme fit for the future."
Trams Concessionary travel – the approved Coalition motion states: "Trams contribute to Edinburgh’s clean air and net zero strategy and will continue to press the Scottish Government to recognise this in its concessionary travel funding. We will continue dialogue with the Scottish Government on delivering free tram journeys for young people on the same terms as bus travel as we feel an integrated public transport system is key to Edinburgh’s future. If this is unfunded at a national level, we will look into the possibility of expanding free provision to young people in Edinburgh subject to affordability."
Homelessness – the approved Coalition motion states: "We recognise the pressure on the service in the past year due to Covid and that pressures are expected to exceed the additional £10m allocated in February’s budget. We also recognise that should legislative protections change as restrictions ease, there may be a requirement for even further resources to improve outcomes for temporary homeless accommodation. We will continue to make the case for additional resources equivalent to those allocated to other local authorities for homelessness support from IBJ budgets. Following that process and depending on in-year position due to service demand, we will agree that left over monies can be used to meet the required supply to get the outcomes right for people finding themselves at risk of homelessness."
Employability for disabled people - the approved Coalition motion states: "to plug the gap left by the loss of the European Social Fund due to Brexit and the lack of a direct replacement fund from the UK government"