Big Conversation 2026/27

Stirling Council, like many other councils in Scotland, is facing ongoing and unprecedented financial pressures.

The main reason for this is that the funding and income we receive no longer meets our rising costs to deliver the services that people in our communities rely on every day, from educating children and young people, to maintaining a vast road network or collecting and recycling waste.

Rising costs

An ageing population (since 2010/11, the over-65 population in Scotland has grown by over 26%) and rising prices for everyday essentials are increasing the costs to deliver our services, particularly in areas such as housing and social care. 

High inflation has also driven up the cost of energy, materials and other supplies which has impacted the costs for a wide range of service areas. In this challenging environment, we have also supported our staff through pay uplifts.

Improvements to key infrastructure, including schools, nurseries, roads, flooding schemes and digital technology, are increasingly expensive but vital to ensure we can continue to provide high-quality services and protect communities across Stirling.  

Funding

All Scottish councils receive two types of funding: revenue funding is mainly used to pay for the daily running costs of operating services, including staff salaries, and covers things like nurseries and schools, social services, household waste and recycling.

Capital funding is used to buy, maintain or improve assets such as buildings, infrastructure or equipment. For example: new paths, improvements to roads and bridges, new buildings and schools, and major long-term investments such as the Stirling Studios development at Forthside.

Our total revenue budget this year (2025-26) is £325.6 million. More than 70% of this comes from the Scottish Government and non-domestic rates, 20% from council tax and 8% from council housing rents.

Over £81 million was allocated for our capital budget this year (2025-26) and this is primarily funded through capital grants from the Scottish Government including specific flood funding schemes, other grant funding from the UK Government with a large proportion funded through borrowing which has a consequential revenue cost to pay this back.

Stirling was one of two councils in Scotland (the other being East Lothian) whose reduction in capital funding this year was forecast to offset any increase in revenue funding, resulting in a real-term reduction to our total funding.

Shortfall

The Accounts Commission reported that at the time setting their budgets for this year (2025-26), Scottish councils identified a difference of £647 million between anticipated expenditure and the funding and income they receive.

This budget gap must be bridged as councils have a legal obligation to set a balanced budget for each financial year.

Councils across Scotland agreed a range of actions to do this – all of them raised council tax by between six and 15.6 per cent, with the rest made up through savings, drawing on reserves and increasing or introducing charges for accessing some services.

Stirling Council addressed its budget shortfall of £12.3 million this year through an 8.8% increase in council tax and a range of savings totalling £7.7 million, which mainly consisted of making efficiencies across services.

The decisions on the budget were informed by a ‘Big Conversation’ with residents and communities where more than 4,300 people of all ages had their say on the detailed savings proposals and other areas of the budget in two surveys.