Is the council’s budget just one big pot of money?
No, we have two different types of budget: revenue and capital.
Revenue expenditure
The day-to-day expenditure incurred by the council to provide public services including employee costs, property repairs and maintenance, providing free school meals and school transport to eligible pupils, payments to care home providers and early learning childcare providers.
Capital expenditure
Expenditure used to buy, enhance or improve long-term assets which would include school buildings, vehicle fleet and improving digital technology.
Capital spending helps the council deliver on the Plan for North Lanarkshire with key investments in new Town and Community Hubs, Country Parks for the Future and supporting Town Visions.
The council cannot move money between these two budgets and any savings must come from our revenue budget - which is our day to day costs for providing council services.
The General Fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) are revenue budgets, which include all income and expenditure incurred in the day-to-day running of the council.
The HRA is a ringfenced account, which deals with all transactions relating to the council's function as a housing landlord. The majority of expenditure incurred is met through tenant housing rents.
The General Fund comprises all other services such as education, social work provision, waste collection, leisure centres, parks and libraries and so on.
Where does the council get its budget from?
The money that we have to spend on services come from a range of sources.
You may think that the council tax you pay is where we get most of our budget, however that only makes up 18% of our total budget. The largest amount, some 80% of our budget, comes directly from the Scottish Government grant.
General Fund
Scottish Government funding - £676.354M
Council Tax - £150.750M
Other - £8.286M
Total - £845.389M
The HRA Budget
Rents - £139.170M
Sales, Fees and Charges - £7.403M
Other - £1.480M
Total - £148.053M
Where does the budget go?
The Revenue budget is divided between the four council services to spend on providing core services.
Education and Families net spend: £419.3m or 49%
Education and Families budget pays for over 200 primary and secondary schools, early years and child care, as well as children and justice services and child protection services to support children and young people to realise their full potential.
Enterprise and Communities net spend: £186.52m or 22%
This service is responsible for all roads maintenance and infrastructure, environment, waste services, trading standards and environmental health, open spaces, transport and culture and leisure services. It also includes physical regeneration, property and land management, community empowerment and investment, housing management, house-building programme and planning. Employability, enterprise and business development also improves economic opportunities and outcomes.
Health and Social Care (IJB) net spend: £157.37m or 19%
North Lanarkshire’s integrated body is responsible for Adult Social Work Services that aim to help people stay in their homes and communities longer. It also covers many other services including adult protection, community and hospital-based health services to help improve health, wellbeing and care within communities.
Chief Executive’s net spend: £82.18m or 10%
This service includes all joint boards, people and organisational development, legal services including licensing, committee and member services, digital and ICT services, communications, audit and risk, together with the council’s strategic plan and performance management, budget and financial management. Core central functions such as finance, business solutions, council tax reduction scheme and the Scottish Welfare Fund.
What about the future?
Each year the council produces an updated medium-term financial plan.
This considers projections for the future Scottish Government grant and cost pressures such as pay awards, inflation and increased demand for services.
The latest plan projects a budget gap of £54.312m between 2022/23 and 2024/24 as follows: