Falkirk Council is facing the fourth largest percentage budget gap of all Scottish local authorities this year. But an Accounts Commission report, presented to members of Falkirk Council's scrutiny committee on Thursday, made clear that many local challenges are part of a very difficult national picture across Scotland.
For 2022 to 2023, Scottish local authorities faced budget gaps of £0.4 billion in real terms, varying from a 0.2 per cent surplus to a 23 per cent gap. Falkirk, with an 8.1 per cent budget gap as a proportion of net cost services, was behind only Shetland, Orkney and Moray in 2022 to 2023.
The previous year, Falkirk had been fifth in the table, which meant it was "going in the wrong direction, "councillors agreed. The Scrutiny meeting was considering a report from 2021 to 2022 but members also heard that the Accounts Commission's most recent report, published in May 2023, made it clear that the situation is not improving.
