East Lothian Council tax increases by almost 5%

Council tax provides less than a quarter of the money the council needs to run local services

East Lothian Council has put its household taxes up by almost 5%.

At a full council meeting on Wednesday, councillors approved an increase of 4.84% in council tax, beginning in April.

Council leader Willie Innes said his priorities were enhancing communities, helping children achieve their potential and supporting vulnerable people.

Mr Innes said balancing the budget was "increasingly challenging".

He said: "But setting a balanced budget, as we are legally required to do, has become increasingly challenging. This year, we faced a funding shortfall of £4.4m for 2020/21 even after applying the maximum council tax increase.

"This is because most of our revenue budget comes in the form of Scottish government grants, which has fallen by 2% in real terms this year and on top of a national 7.6% reduction to local government funding since 2013/14 as referenced in a recent report by Audit Scotland.

"Council tax provides less than a quarter of the money we need to run local services.

"As a result we have had to make some difficult decisions in order to, as far as possible, maintain essential public services for the people of East Lothian."