East Renfrewshire council tax to rise by 8%

Council tax in East Renfrewshire will rise by 8% from April after councillors agreed plans to cover a £7m budget shortfall.

Increasing the tax will bring in an extra £5.4m, with the remainder of the spending gap to be covered from reserves and just over £1.2m of savings.

All political parties agreed to the budget plans, presented by council leader Owen O’Donnell, Labour, who said teacher numbers would be protected.

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A nationwide freeze on the levy ends in April meaning local authorities can increase it by however much they like.

He said: “Setting the council tax increase at 8% is higher than we would have liked, however, it is necessary to not only protect our excellent services but will allow further investment in education, care, roads, housing and leisure facilities.”

Reducing funding to East Renfrewshire’s culture and leisure trust and cutting two vacant education jobs will save around £390,000.

The remainder of the savings were agreed last year and include £356,000 from the decision to reduce brown bin collections to fortnightly.

In his budget speech, councillor O’Donnell also confirmed proposals for a credit union in East Renfrewshire are being developed and staff on modern apprenticeships will be paid the real living wage from April.

The council’s investment plans include an extra £3.5m to spend on roads — announced last year as part of a five-year commitment — and another £1m to buy back ex-council homes.

An extra £1.6m will be given to the area’s health and social care partnership. Work is also due to start on a new Balgray railway station and a replacement leisure centre and theatre in Eastwood Park.

East Renfrewshire Council received a settlement of £271.3m from the Scottish Government for 2025/26 — a £14.7m increase on last year.

Cllr O’Donnell added: “Following many years of extremely challenging financial pressures, there are cautious grounds of optimism in relation to the council’s finances.

“There will still be significant challenges ahead and difficult decisions to make, but for the first time in my period as council leader, I can see a path to a more positive future allowing us to focus on delivering even better services to our residents.”

The new savings include a £200,000 cut to the leisure trust’s management fee and the removal of two centrally based support roles in education, which are currently vacant, to save £190,000.

Previously agreed savings worth more than £840,000 mainly come from the removal of roles in education, such as janitors, cleaners and school crossing patrollers. There are no compulsory redundancies.

The final £385,000 needed to cover the budget gap will be taken from a reserve which exists after the Scottish Government previously allowed councils to spread the cost of PFI payments — deals which saw private sector investment in public infrastructure projects, such as schools and roads.

Following the council tax rise, a Band D household will pay £1,528.44 for 2025/26 before water charges, which Scottish Water is lifting by 9.9%, are included. The total cost for a Band D home would be £2,128.83.

A hike in employer’s national insurance contributions, announced by the UK Government, will cost the council around £1.4m.

Councillor Tony Buchanan, the council’s SNP group leader, said the increased funding settlement came with “some barriers”. “That barrier was employer’s national insurance contributions, which is going to significantly impact every employer including the public sector.”

He said while the Scottish Government was providing funding to mitigate the impact, the £1.4m cost could have “gone into delivering services”.

Cllr Buchanan also highlighted the impact on the council’s third sector partners, who aren’t receiving financial support. He said it could lead to increased charges for the council.

The council leader said the council’s improved settlement was after the impact of the national insurance rise, but he accepted there were concerns about third sector providers.

Councillor Andrew Morrison, Conservative, said: “My colleagues and I are happy to support the budget put forward today. A lot of the input of the Conservatives in conjunction with others has been fed in through the budget strategy group.

“We are really getting to the bottom of the barrel now in terms of palatable savings options. I think part of the reason for the lack of the amendments is not just the cohesive working through the budget strategy group, it is because there are very few alternative courses of action available now.”

On the reduction in funding to East Renfrewshire’s culture and leisure trust, he said: “I don’t actually see that as a cut, I see that as a good thing because it means the culture and leisure trust, which is performing well, is becoming more financially self-sufficient.”