Financial Strategy 2022

The local government landscape has never been more complex or challenging. As we try to recover from the global health pandemic, we are also experiencing increased levels of poverty across our communities, rapid growth in our elderly population and the impact of poor mental health and wellbeing. Added to that we have an ambitious policy agenda to regenerate our economy, reduce the impact of climate change, raise educational attainment, and to increase and optimise the use of digital technology; all of which will come with a significant cost 
attached. 
 
At the same time, the Council is experiencing unprecedented financial and other resource pressures because of real terms reductions in funding, significant cost increases due to inflation and an increasing demand for services. 

This has created a substantial "funding gap" or structural deficit in our Revenue Budget which needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency, given our legal requirement to set a balanced budget each year, whilst maintaining sufficient Reserves to deal with any unexpected events. 

Through the Perth and Kinross Offer ("the Offer") and our Transformation and Change Strategy, we must rethink how both our front line and internal services are designed and delivered so that we can better meet the needs of our communities, now and in the future, within the resources that are available to us. Our Financial Strategy will be key in supporting that outcome.