Budget 2024/25
This page will keep you up-to-date on news and progress on Moray Council’s budget for 2024/25 and beyond. You’ll find background information, survey links and updates on decisions made by council on charges and the future of services.
Please take the time to look around and get involved.
An update was issued following full council in December 2023.
A message from Council Leader, Cllr Kathleen Robertson:
"Following our engagement with residents at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, the council has been able to set a balanced budget for 2024/25 while considering the feedback we got. My thanks, once again, go to everyone who got involved with helping us set our priorities for service delivery. Information on the various phases and results can be found further down this page.
Further public engagement has been carried out into what the future could look like for our sports, leisure and culture services. A future meeting of council will discuss these findings and to consider swimming pools, libraries, FitLife? and community facilities – more information will be available after those discussions have taken place.
More details on the budget we’ve set can be found here. Given there is still a need for further significant savings in 2025/26 we’ll be continuing to consult with residents and service user over the coming months as we look ahead to future spending plans."
The following provides information on the additional savings identified and agreed by full council on 28 February 2024.
Cleaning – Facilities Management
Current service: The Facilities Management Service provides building cleaning across the school and office estate within Moray, janitorial service within the school environment and facilities services within HQ/Annexe and Rose Cottage. They also oversee the caretaking service for public lets.
Change: Reduce frequency of cleaning in HQ/Annexe buildings by 20%. Focus will remain on high-risk priority areas.
Building standards
Current service: The Development Management & Building Standards teams deliver a statutory service determining planning applications, other consents and building warrants. Both teams have responsibility for enforcement and compliance with plans and conditions imposed.
Change: Reduce service delivery relating to the investigation and enforcement of development management.
Environmental Health & Trading Standards
Current service: Environmental Health and Trading Standards deliver Statutory Functions, including: Health and Safety; housing standards; repair; housing of multiple occupancy; public health; pollution control; land contamination; noise; animal boarding and more.
Change: Review of service delivery relating to bringing empty homes back into use and realigning statutory work across the service.
Organisational Development
Current service: Organisational Development leads on corporate workforce strategy planning, provision of organisational development advice, professional training advice and support to the council’s workforce including employee engagement and workforce culture and corporate communications and central health and safety functions.
Change: Move to a curating approach where training and development activity and e-learning is bought in as opposed to be created and delivered in-house.
Money Advice Service
Current service: A debt management service (including debtor arrangements for multiple debts) for those in financial difficulties. This is a discretionary service but has preventative benefits.
The service is a discrete unit and is under high demand from some of the most vulnerable households in Moray, following the covid crisis and the current cost of living crisis.
Change: Reduce the money advice service.
Governance, strategy and performance
Current service: Leads and contributes to performance management and reporting of all council services; corporate strategy and community planning; complaints and equalities; information governance.
Change: To reduce the Equal Opportunities and Research and Information resource and restructure responsibilities amongst team
Continuing phase two of our budget engagement, we’re also considering how our leisure and libraries estate could be run differently. With a reduction in budgets coming, the way all of our existing facilities and services are delivered needs to be considered.
Find out more about how our services run just now in the drop-down boxes below then head to our survey to have your say.
Survey for the leisure services is here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LEISURE23
Survey for the Libraries, Learning Centres and Heritage services is here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LIBRARIES23
We’ll also be running a series of drop-in sessions and facilitated discussions with members of the public on the following dates:
Buckie Library: Wednesday 22 November, 3pm-7pm
Aberlour Library: Thursday 23 November, 3pm-4.45pm
Speyside Sports & Community Centre: Thursday 23 November, 5pm-7pm
Lossiemouth Sports & Community Centre (library): Friday 24 November, 3pm-7pm
Keith Sports & Community Centre: Monday 27 November, 3pm-7pm
Forres House Community Centre (library entrance): Tuesday 28 November, 3pm-7pm
Elgin Library: Wednesday 29 November, 12noon-5pm
Moray Council operates nine leisure facilities across the Local Authority area
• Buckie Swimming Pool
• Elgin Community Centre (closing 31 March 2024)
• Forres House Community Centre
• Forres Swimming Pool
• Keith Sports & Community Centre
• Lossiemouth Sports & Community Centre
• Speyside Sports & Community Centre
• Milnes High Fitness Room
• Elgin High Sports Block
Staff at these facilities also manage and operate the local outdoor sports facilities, such as astroturf pitches, grass pitches and pavilions.
Key facts about our leisure facilities
• All of the above nine leisure facilities vary in size, functionality, opening hours and facility condition – making it difficult to compare like-for-like.
• Apart from Elgin and Forres House Community Centres, all of our facilities are used for PE curriculum/education delivery through the week so there are certain areas of restricted for public access from 8.45am-6.00pm on weekdays. Curriculum and educational needs fluctuate from term-to-term so leisure facility timetables change on a termly basis.
• A Facilities Planning Model report generated by sportscotland in 2021 identified that Moray has 16sqm of waterspace (swimming pool space) per 1,000 population – the national average at this time was 17sqm.
• The same report identified that Moray had the equivalent of ten sports courts per 10,000 population (based on large sports halls only) – the national average at this time was seven.
• We have approximately 138 staff employed to support the delivery of Sport & Leisure facilities and programmes across Moray (this figure includes Full Time, Part Time and Relief staff).
The Sport & Leisure Team provide a wide array of functions/activities across Moray including;
- Access to swimming
- Provision of swimming lessons
- Provision of leisure facilities for school curriculum purposes
- Access to health suites (sauna/steam room)
- Access to fitness rooms
- Access to weights rooms
- Delivery of exercise classes (Spinning, Aqua Aerobics, Body Pump etc)
- Delivery of Physical Activity for Health Programme (Exercise Referral)
- Access to Climbing Wall (Speyside)
- Access to grass and astroturf pitches for outdoor sports activities (including use of pavilions)
- Use of sports halls for recreational activities (such as 5-a-side football, public badminton session)
- Use of leisure facilities for Active Schools sessions
- Use of leisure facilities for walking sports sessions
- Use of leisure facilities to local community organisations such as sports clubs, arts/culture groups (providing a home for these organisations)
- Use of leisure facilities for one off events (birthday parties)
- Use of leisure facilities for businesses/organisations for meeting spaces
- Use of leisure facilities as Council Office spaces and for partner organisations to deliver services
- Use of school sports facilities to local community organisations such as sports clubs, arts/culture groups
The number of people accessing each leisure facility across 2022/23 is shown in the table below. The table provides an overall total and how these compare to 2021/22 statistics as well as income generated and how this compares to 2021/22 income.
Main Stakeholders
The main sport and leisure stakeholders are sportscotland, National Governing Bodies of Sport, Public Health Scotland, NHS Grampian, Scottish Government, Council teams such as Family & Adult Learning and Education, Community Groups, Customers/Users of leisure facilities and employees.
The Future
To deliver a Sport & Leisure Service within a reduced budget allocation the following should be taken into account when considering alternative delivery models:
- Usage levels
- Facility condition
- Future capital developments in locality areas
- Income Generation
- Diversity of programmes delivered
- Protected characteristic group usage
- Energy efficiency/carbon footprint
- Distance decay function (20min drive catchments)
- National comparators of service provision
Moray Council operate 11 library facilities across the Local Authority area in Aberlour; Buckie; Burghead; Cullen; Dufftown; Elgin; Fochabers; Forres; Keith; Lossiemouth and Tomintoul.
The service also has a mobile library bus with a five week timetable covering the length and breadth of Moray.
Key facts about our library facilities
• All 11 libraries vary in size, functionality, opening hours and facility condition – making it difficult to make like-for-like comparisons.
• Our libraries in Lossiemouth, Burghead, Fochabers and Tomintoul are located within a school, therefore the libraries are utilised by both the school and local community.
• Moray currently sits 10th out of 32 Local Authorities in regards to the number of libraries operating based on the size of the local population.
• We have approximately 75 staff employed to support the delivery of Libraries, Learning Centres & Heritage across Moray (this figure includes Full Time, Part Time and Relief staff).
The Libraries, Learning Centre & Heritage Team provide a wide array of functions across Moray, including;
- Free internet and email access from public PC’s (statutory requirement)
- Borrowing of books, resources and materials for free
- Access reference materials
- Photocopying & fax facilities
- Provide ‘warm and welcome spaces’, free period products
- Provide study space, work space, meeting space, activity space
- Heritage support, enquiries, searches, activities and outreach work
- School, Nursery and Community Group Visits
- Act as Information Hubs (signposting for Council/Government services and enquiries)
- Supporting completion of applications that are solely online to the digitally excluded (example bus pass)
- Job Clubs, Help Hubs
- Skills Development opportunities
- Outreach work in local communities
- Partnership working – improved service delivery
- Events & Activities for all ages (inc. families) – bookbug sessions, lego clubs, book clubs, knitting clubs, author events
- eAudio, eBook and digital magazine download service
- Housebound Reader Service
- Deliver informal and formal ICT courses to SQA and BCS standards
- Deliver digital technology, coding, augmented reality activities and events
- Offer NHS Near Me service (online consultancy service)
- Provide opportunities through social prescribing/Health and Wellbeing Support
- Partner in regards to the Moray Growth Deal projects – particularly the Cultural Quarter project and the STEM project
There is a cultural shift from libraries being viewed as solely book repositories to becoming information focussed community hubs that provide social interaction, particularly for vulnerable or disadvantaged groups.
The number of people visiting each library across 2022/23 is shown in the table below. The table provides an overall total, an average based on the varying weekly opening hours and how these figures compare to 2021/22 statistics.
Main Stakeholders
The main stakeholders for Libraries, Learning Centres and Heritage services are the Scottish Library & Informational Council (SLIC), National Library of Scotland, NHS Grampian, Scottish Government, Council teams such as Family & Adult Learning and Youth Work, Moray College/UHI, Moray Pathways, Local Businesses, Community Groups, Customers/Users of library facilities and employees.
The Future
To deliver a Libraries, Learning Centre & Heritage services with a reduced budget the following should be taken into consideration.
- Usage levels
- Enquiry levels
- Facility Condition
- Facility Size/Space/Capabilities
- Future capital developments in locality areas
- Partnership Facility reliance
- Weekly operational hours
- Diversity of programmes delivered
- Protected characteristic group usage
- Energy efficiency/carbon footprint
- Distance decay function (20min drive catchment),
- National comparators of service provision
The following provides further information for each of the proposals being consulted on in the next stage of the Budget 2024/25 engagement until 22 November 2023. The survey to give feedback on these can be found here.
Stage one budget consultation – summary of findings
[Note: Moray Council planned to consider setting the council tax level as part of their financial planning, the recent announcement by the First Minister to freeze council tax for 2024/25 means that this option will not be available to the council next year].
Participants were asked to indicate how much they would be ‘Willing’ to see Council Tax rise, the choice they could make was between 3% and 15% @ 1% increments.
- When participants choices were averaged the increase to Council Tax was 5.9%.
- 60% of all participants indicated a ‘Willingness’ to see Council Tax rise by more than 3%, 40% of all participants indicated a rise of 6% or more and 20% of all participants a rise of 10% or more.
- There was variance across different groups, most noticeable within the 0-16 group where more than half were ‘Willing’ so see rises of 8% or more.
Participants were asked whether they agreed with Council Vision and priorities
- 96.0% agreed or somewhat agreed with our Vision and 94.5% with our Priorities.
- Of the three Priorities ‘Tackle Poverty and Inequality’ ranked 1st, ‘Build thriving, resilient, empowered communities’ ranked 2nd & Build a stronger, greener, vibrant economy ranked 3rd
- The 0-16 age group priorities differed from all other groups. ‘Tackle poverty and inequality’ remained the top priority, but they placed ‘Build a stronger, greener, vibrant economy’ before ‘Build thriving, resilient, empowered communities’.
Working with communities
- 76.2% of participants either strongly agreed or agreed that Moray Council should encourage and support people and communities to be resilient and self-sufficient. In contrast only 37.3% thought that resources should be targeted to those greatest in need
Participants were asked to indicate their willingness to increase service charges in specific areas (leisure and Sports, Secondary School meals, Household Garden waste permits & Burial charges to recover the cost of service)
- 60% of participants, or more, are willing to see some form of increase in charges but more so in Leisure & Sports and Burials than in Secondary School Meals and Garden Waste Permits. More than half of participants are willing to see moderate to significant increases within Leisure & Sports services.
- 41.4% of participants indicated they would be willing to accept the introduction of parking charges for areas not previously charged.
- Although Household Garden Waste Permits has the least ‘appetite’ for increase, almost 60% of participants showed willingness for some increase
Participants were asked to indicate their willingness to reduce spending/level of service delivery using a 0-4 scale (No change – Moderate – Significant)
- A least one third of participants indicated that they’d be willing to see some form of reduction across all service areas.
- A more significant proportion of participants indicated they’d be willing to see reductions in standard and level of service over those indicating no change within Catering services (54.9%), Economic Growth & Development Services (Regulatory Services, Climate change and Economic Development) (63.7%), Housing services (55.8%), Communities services (57.0%) and Library facilities (54.9%). In the same service areas there was a greater willingness to see moderate – significant reductions, particularly within Economic Growth and Development Services (Regulatory Services, Climate change and Economic Development) (47.2%).
- Half of participants indicated they’d be willing to see reductions within Mental Health and Drug & Alcohol services (49.8%) and almost a third (32.9%) would be willing to see Moderate – Significant reductions.
- Almost half of participants indicated they’d be willing to see reductions in Schools – Learning estate (46.2%) and Leisure Services (46.0%).
- The least willingness to see reductions (No change) was within Primary (63.7%), Secondary (63.3%), ASN Services (67.0%), Social Care services for adults (63.2%), Road repairs (60.5%), Roads winter maintenance (65.8%) and Bins & Recycling (60.4%).
Council leader summary statement - Previous statement
"I’d like to express my thanks and gratitude to everyone who took part in the first round of our budget engagement exercises in September 2023. We asked how far residents could tolerate increases to charges, changes to services and their take on what the future of Moray Council looks like.
With over 2,300 responses it provided us with useful feedback on where we need to get to as a Council and where our toughest decisions will come in the 2024/25 budget and beyond.
The summary of the first phase of consultation is below and has been considered as part of our first round of decision making, more detail on that can be found here.
In the coming weeks we’ll launch the next phase of engagement, this time on specific service proposals that we’d welcome more input from the public on. We’ll also be looking for service users to give us an insight into how they use leisure and library facilities and how changes to these services would impact them.
I encourage anyone with an interest in helping us create a sustainable budget for the future of Moray to take part and give their views. We’re especially keen to hear from younger people who want to make a difference in Moray.
The outcome of this exercise will inform the next stage of decision making by full council in December 2023."
Your councillors in Moray have been working in the background for over six months now to prepare a balanced budget for 2024/25. Like most of the 32 local authorities in Scotland, we’re doing this with the backdrop of severe financial constraints, including:
- Increasing demand for services
- Increased inflation
- Reduced funding from central government
- Increased supply costs and global supply chain issues
- Limited power to raise our own revenue
- Continuing pressure from a post-pandemic economy
All your elected members are working with the express intention that our communities get the services they need. But the context above sets out how increasingly challenging that has become.
Moray is at a crossroads and we need help to choose which way to turn, not all roads lead to home and they’re certainly not paved with gold.
We want to maintain a high standard of service for those we continue to provide but we need community input to help us work out what those services should be and how they can be delivered more efficiently. That’s where you can help shape the future of the council.
I urge you to read the information in the documents on this page setting out the context for our next budget. It represents a realistic picture of the council’s position, one that is shared by all other Scottish councils.
Every year successive councils in Moray say ‘we have tough decisions ahead’ and ‘none of these decisions are taken lightly’. And every year we mean it. You’ll have noticed services have already been reduced in many areas of delivery as we’ve made efficiency savings over the years. Unfortunately, all the indicators suggest that we have to make further serious changes to how the council operates, in order to balance the 2024/25 budget, so please take part in the consultation in any way you can. Your views are important and we’ll be guided by you in looking to the future of Moray Council.
What next?
Just like our household budgets, the Council is experiencing soaring inflation and rapidly rising energy, goods and service costs. For example, in March 2023 we had to budget an additional £1.5m for our annual gas and electricity, a rise of 42% on the previous year. Costs like these continue to rise. We also need to keep a small margin within our budget for cost rises we know are coming but we don’t know exactly how much they’ll be – for example increased staff pay awards (agreed nationally).
When setting the budget in 2023/24 we knew that savings of £20.8 million would be needed over the next two years. By the end of June 2023 we had identified £1.8m of savings, bringing our projected budget shortfalls to £18.2 million in 2024/25 and a further £0.8 million in 2025/26.
The documents below help explain the full situation and next steps – click into them to find out more.
Service status posters
