Tell us what you think about savings suggestions

People all across Aberdeenshire are being asked what they need from council budgets, suggested savings ideas, and Council Tax changes for the coming year. 

A new survey has been launched today (Tues), asking residents to give their views on saving suggestions to help balance council books, and help explain what a rise in Council Tax might mean for them.   

https://engage.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/aberdeenshire-council-budget-engagement-2025-26 

Aberdeenshire Council provides hundreds of services to residents every day – from schools, roads, waste, advice to businesses, leisure, culture and benefits.

These come with significant budgets but also come with a legal requirement to deliver a range of local services. Serving a population of 263,000 people across a wide geographical spread, our budget is coming under increasing challenge. 

In 2024/25, we spent around £750m delivering essential local services and committed £95m on capital projects investing in our infrastructure, schools, buildings, roads and IT estate.

Aberdeenshire, like all councils in Scotland, is under increasing financial pressure. This is due to a range of challenges being experienced by the wider public sector, less money to support local services. Costs are increasing and demands are growing. 

Residents will remember previous budget engagement programmes and, over the past few years, we have looked at every part of what we do to remove non-essential spend, stripped out management costs, introduced vacancy management, reduced roads and winter maintenance, changed services in schools, maximised income in areas like our sports facilities, negotiated hard on all our contracts, closed service points and redirected customers to online or telephone support. 

But sadly, all this is not enough. For the next financial year (2025-26), current forecasts suggest a position of being £26m over budget. 

A list of ideas for further reductions and cuts in services have been drawn up. It is recognised these won’t be popular, but they are things we know we need do to protect our most critical services and our most vulnerable citizens. And we want to know how our communities feel about them. 

As well as asking for views on savings, there is a section asking questions about Council Tax. The tax itself brings in around 20% of our income - meanwhile every 1% we collect raises approximately an additional £1.69m, which we will use to protect the services you value the most.

The results of this survey will be pulled together and given to councillors for them to consider at the November meeting of Full Council. They will then continue to debate and consider ideas up to the budget-setting meeting in the first part of 2025. 

The survey is now live, and we would love to hear what you think before 15 Nov. That allows us to give councillors an early heads-up on the results for that November meeting. Of course, we can accept later updates too, and paper copies of this can also be accessed in libraries or service points. 
 
https://engage.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/aberdeenshire-council-budget-engagement-2025-26 

Aberdeenshire Council Leader Cllr Gillian Owen said: “Things are incredibly difficult in local government just now. Aberdeenshire Council, like all councils across Scotland, is facing unprecedented financial challenges. The impact from inflation, pay awards, construction costs and the cost-of-living crisis all continue to impact on the council as much as they are impacting household budgets. We no longer have enough money to do the things we did 10 or even five years ago and we need to change. 

“Transformation work is underway in the Council which will make a difference but that is longer term. With the limited resources it is clear we can no longer afford the current level of public services so we either need to stop some services or they need to be done differently. That is why I am so keen to hear what people think. What services matter most to you, what should we protect, and in protecting those things what can we realistically stop. I said in my budget speech back in February that we want to work with our communities to balance your needs with the money we have available. So please take this opportunity to let us know."

Deputy Leader Cllr Anne Stirling added: “It is a challenging time and there is no doubt of that, but I am hopeful that hearing the voices of the community can steer our decision making in the coming months. We have a range of very complex issues to deal with locally – fluctuating school rolls, ageing infrastructure and one of the fastest ageing populations in Scotland. What we need now and in future will be different, and listening to the voices of people’s lived experience is essential.”