Perth and Kinross Council has more than doubled its planned use of reserves this year by a whopping £14.3 million.
The 2024/25 budget – passed by councillors in February – planned to dip into £13.8 million of its reserves; this has since soared to £28.1 million.
At a meeting of PKC’s Audit and Performance Committee on Monday, December 2, Cllr Liz Barrett questioned the council’s financial sustainability.
The local authority’s capital investment programme is an eye-watering £674 million over the next five years. Major capital projects include the Cross Tay Link Road, the replacement building for Perth High School and Perth’s new leisure facility PH2O. The PH20 project was paused last year due to inflationary pressures; councillors this year voted for a “watered down” facility to be built on the site of Thimblerow Car Park.
A draft version of PKC’s 2023/24 audited accounts and a draft version of Audit Scotland’s annual audit report was put before the Audit and Performance Committee on Monday.
During the meeting, Cllr Liz Barrett said: “Audit Scotland have today highlighted about reserves that they can only be used once and when they’re gone they’re gone.”
The Perth City South councillor raised concern Perth and Kinross Council has slipped from fifth place in Scotland in 2018/19 compared to other Scottish councils to 18th in 2022/23 in terms of its financial sustainability.
Having now more than doubled its planned use of reserves this financial year, the Liberal Democrat councillor asked if this would cause PKC “to slip even further down the tables for Scotland”.
The council’s chief finance officer Scott Walker said it was difficult to compare councils in terms of their reserves.
He explained: “It depends on their individual policies.
“One of the big changes that was made over the last couple of years was around the service concession schemes. That could have a significant impacting depending upon individual circumstances.
“I don’t know where we’ll move in the league table but what I can confirm is that we’re still between the two and four per cent which was part of our reserve strategy.”