Inverclyde Council will have a £4 million surplus in its 2012/13 Revenue Budget.

Elected Members have been told the money can be invested in one-off projects and initiatives and thereafter be used to help balance the budget in future years.

Council Leader, Councillor Stephen McCabe, said: “Thanks to achieving savings earlier than planned and our continued prudent management of the Council’s finances, we now find ourselves in a position where we do not have to make any further savings to balance next year’s budget. We are also projecting that we will exceed our workstream savings target by £1.5 million in 2012/13.”

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Last week Councillor McCabe wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, John Swinney MSP, reluctantly accepting the Council’s funding settlement for 2012/13 from the Scottish Government as if he had not done so the Government would have withheld approximately £9 million in grant.

Under the Local Government Finance Settlement Inverclyde will see year on year reductions in its revenue grant for the next three years allied to a 15% reduction in its capital funding over the same period.

Councillor McCabe said: “The cuts in funding from the Scottish Government combined with inflation, increasing demands on services and the Council Tax freeze means that we anticipate having to make further significant savings if we are to balance our budgets in future years. Continuing with our medium term financial planning and working with our trades unions partners we aim to achieve these savings in a planned, managed and sensitive way, minimising the impact on jobs and services as best we can.”

(GK)