Fife Council leader David Ross said there are "no significant cuts" in Labour's budget proposals.

His party will table their financial plans on Thursday, which will include a council tax freeze, and while he warned of tough times ahead services and jobs will remain unscathed. 

Councillor Ross said: “I am pleased to state that the council should be able to avoid making any significant cuts to services in the coming year. 

Central Fife Times: Fife Council leader David Ross. Fife Council leader David Ross. (Image: Fife Council)

“This is in large part due to the sustained efforts of our finance staff and the directorate and service managers to manage the council’s resources prudently and under huge pressure.” 

The local authority will set the general fund revenue budget for 2024-27 at a full council meeting in Glenrothes. 

Included in their proposals are an additional £17m for the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, plus a one-off investment of £2.1m to help them plug a hole in their current finances.

A number of changes and decisions in recent months have made it a little easier to balance the books in Fife, but Cllr Ross' report added:  “Although we will be able to produce a balanced budget, we will continue to face major financial challenges in the medium and longer term.

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“Service budgets in the present year are once again overspent and the council is in surplus only because of favourable movements in loan charges and other corporate items that cannot be relied on in the longer term.” 

Overall, he said there were “some significant financial risks facing the council as we move into the next financial year”. 

The minority Labour administration will fall in line and back a council tax freeze, which was announced by First Minister Humza Yousaf in October, but they're not happy about it. 

Cllr Ross said: "We are faced with a choice of freezing council tax this coming year and receiving our share of the funding withheld by the Scottish Government, or raising council tax by at least 4.9 per cent before we receive any financial benefit above the £9.3m. 

“Faced with these choices, we are proposing to agree to a freeze for 2024-25 and ask the Scottish Government to release the £9.3m they are threatening to withhold from our grant.”