Council budget 2024/25

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 from the capital fund to the 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 comes primarily from the Scottish Government.

You may think that the council tax you pay is where we get most of our budget, but that only makes up 17% of our total budget. The largest amount, 81% of our budget, comes directly from the Scottish Government grant.

General Fund

• Scottish Government funding - £806.2m
• Council Tax - £166.8m
• Other - £17.7m
• Total - £990.7m

Where does the budget go?

The Revenue budget is divided between four groups of council services to spend on providing core services.

Education and Families net spend: £551.5m (56%)

The 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: £152.5m (15%)

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.

Adult Health and Social Care (IJB) net spend: £193.9m (20%)

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 Services net spend: £80.1m (8%)

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.

Joint Boards: £12.7m (1%)

In North Lanarkshire, NHS Lanarkshire and North Lanarkshire Council have integrated the planning and delivery of all community health and social care services. This work is led and directed by the North Lanarkshire Integration Joint Board, with the council and health board working together to deliver the services of Health & Social Care North Lanarkshire.

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 and pension, inflation and increased demand for services.

The latest plan projects a budget gap of £60m between 2024/25 and 2026/27 as follows: