Tuesday November 11th 2025
East Lothian council leader Norman Hampshire
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
East Lothian Council’s leader has warned public services are in danger with tough decisions needed to secure their future.
Speaking as officers revealed six areas have been placed at a very high level of risk across the local authority, Councillor Norman Hampshire said the upcoming budget would be the hardest elected members had ever faced.
And he warned without making changes community facilities would close and services would suffer.
Speaking to a meeting of his Labour administration cabinet, Councillor Hampshire said: “Every service across the council is under pressure and one of the big parts of that pressure is the financial situation we are struggling with.
“We always say ‘difficult budget, difficult budget’ but what we are now facing going forward is probably the most difficult we have ever had.
“The choice will be if we want to try and protect services we need to try and make them as efficient as we possibly can and also generate as much income as we possibly can, that is the only way we will protect our services going forward.
“If we don’t do these things we will have to close facilities and that will be community facilities that people out there will not be pleased with.”
Mr Hampshire’s comments came after the council was presented with an updated Corporate Risk Register which contained six very high level areas of risk.
Very high levels of risk are described by the council as “unacceptable” and require measures to be taken to “reduce, transfer or treat the risk to a more tolerable position”.
Among areas in the highest category were the council’s financial situation with a lack of funds placing it at risk of not being able to sustain services, its failure to meet its requirement to provide suitable accommodation for people due, in part, to a fall in private lets and affordable housing delivery, and its ability to carry out repairs to its properties and maintain its assets with warnings it faced not having the funds or staff to carry out essential work to keep buildings in a good condition.
Cabinet members were asked to accept the report on the register which was approved unanimously with praise going to council staff for working under difficult circumstances.
Councillor Hampshire told colleagues that while the report was not ‘welcome’ it revealed the efforts of under pressure council workers in mitigating the issues and the need for cross party support moving forward.
He said: “We have a difficult choice in front of us but I am confident this administration will work with our opposition groups to try and get an agreement, because they are not going to be easy decisions, so we can protect the services for people here in East Lothian.”
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