BUDGETS, we all have them.

Whether it is the household budget, the budget of a company, the football club’s budget or our council’s, the principle is really the same – generate enough income to pay for outgoings.

For large expenditure, people take out mortgages to pay for houses and likewise. At a council level to pay for projects such as new schools, the council too borrows and has to pay off the loan for the next 30 years.

Next week the council sets its budget for its spending priorities for the next year. For some understanding the budget might be daunting, but how it operates in practice is a little simpler.

The council funds all its services from mainly the grant it receives from the Scottish Government, as well as council tax raised locally, and charges for services such as cremations.

Many people often ask what their money is spent on. In truth, the council delivers hundreds – if not thousands of services: education; schools; health and social care; roads; street lighting and employability schemes.

The list could literally fill the rest of this page and the next.

Many of the services the council delivers are mandatory. Our council must have schools and must protect expenditure in health and social care to protect those most in need living within our area.

However, for many areas, how much we spend and where we spend it comes down to political priorities.

In theory we could have the best roads in the world if every available resource was spent on them, but this would mean no money would be left to spend on keeping libraries open across Inverclyde, having first class leisure facilities or perhaps cutting back on bin collections would be required to pay for them.

Most of the content of next year’s budget is already public knowledge as the agreed strategy of using the council’s very healthy reserves to fill funding gaps has already been agreed by committee.

With an election in May, any political party would struggle to justify a mandate to commit the council to spending priorities for the next five years.

If you watch the news you will have noticed that it took a last minute deal for the Scottish Government to agree its budget.

If it didn’t agree one we faced another Scottish Parliament election in March.

Therefore the SNP in Inverclyde have made a constructive offer that we will support the Labour-run council’s budget – if it agrees to support a key priority to over 1,000 women across Inverclyde.

In November last year we were told that 800 equal pay claims would be made imminently. They were not.

Furthermore perhaps hundreds more women have been locked out of even being allowed to submit a claim due to a technicality. This is not just and it must be made right.

If Labour agree to change the council’s policy to provide settlements to everyone that could be eligible, and provide £1 million in additional funds to go towards the council’s equal pay fund, then the SNP in Inverclyde will vote in favour of such a budget.