Highland Council

Political Control & Leadership

Political control

No overall control

Run by

SNP and Independent coalition

Seats

Independents and others 28 · SNP 19 · Liberal Democrats 16 · Conservative 6 · Green 3 · Labour 2 (74 seats)As at May 2026. "Independents and others" includes local parties. Source: Open Council Data UK (public domain).

Leader

Bill Lobban

Chief executive

Derek Brown

Last election

2022

Overview

Population

235,540

Founded

1996

Website

highland.gov.uk

Finance

Annual revenue budget

£859m

Council tax (Band D)

£1,634This is the council’s own charge. Scottish Water’s water and sewerage charges are added on the same bill. Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service are national bodies funded by the Scottish Government, not through council tax. See Council Spending by Service below for how this council itself spends.

Council Spending by Service

Total

£718m2024-25 · Scottish Government (outturn) · Sum of this council's 8 reported service categories. Scotland does not publish a single total figure in this source. · May not match "Annual revenue budget" above. That figure is a different accounting measure (budgeted resource requirement) for a different year than this outturn total.

Education

£367m

Social Work

£215m

Roads and Transport

£43m

Environmental Services

£41m

Culture and Related Services

£22m

Non-HRA Housing

£21m

Central Services

£10m

Claimant count

3,230 people claiming unemployment-related benefits, August 2026

2.3% of residents aged 16 to 64 · +210 on August 2025

The Claimant Count is people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance plus people on Universal Credit who are required to look for work. Before 2013 it counted only Unemployment Benefit or Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants, so earlier years are not strictly comparable. Universal Credit requires more people to search for work than Jobseeker’s Allowance did, so as it replaced older benefits from 2013, part of the rise in the count reflects that change rather than more unemployment. It is not the official unemployment rate, which comes from a survey. The latest month can be revised.

Source: Office for National Statistics, Claimant Count (via Nomis). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Welfare spending

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Child poverty

Children under 16 living in low-income families, 2024-25

A child is counted if their family’s income is below 60% of the UK median for that year and the family claimed Child Benefit plus at least one other benefit (Universal Credit, tax credits or Housing Benefit). The two measures can differ a lot: housing costs push the after-housing-costs figure far higher in expensive areas such as London. Figures are provisional and years before 2021-22 are not comparable, so the trend starts there.

Source: Department for Work and Pensions, Children in Low Income Families: local area statistics (FYE 2022 to 2025, published 26 March 2026).

House prices

£221,136 average house price, July 2026

+6.1% over 12 months · +0.5% over 1 month · 348 sales in May 2026

Average prices are HM Land Registry’s estimates for the whole area, adjusted for the mix of homes sold, not the price of any one home. Figures for the latest months are provisional: sales can take weeks or months to be registered, so each month is revised for a year after it is first published. Sales counts are published about three months behind prices. In areas with fewer sales, figures can swing noticeably from month to month.

Source: HM Land Registry, UK House Price Index (July 2026 data). Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Crime

10,256 crimes recorded in 2024-25 (April to March)

43.4 per 1,000 residents · Down 7.5% on the previous year

Source: Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland (Accredited Official Statistics). Published once a year for each financial year (April to March). The rate per 1,000 residents is the Scottish Government’s own published rate.

Crime figures last updated 11 October 2026.

Road casualties

People killed or injured on roads reported to the police, 2025

These are casualties in collisions reported to the police on all roads in the council’s area, including motorways and trunk roads it doesn’t manage. Police forces have moved to an injury-based recording system that classes more injuries as serious, so the Department for Transport publishes an adjusted “killed or seriously injured” estimate to allow fair comparison between years; the trend uses the adjusted figure, and the road-user table uses figures as recorded. Rates are per billion miles driven by motor vehicles in the area.

Source: Department for Transport, Reported road casualties Great Britain (RAS0403, first published 30 July 2026). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Public Health

Smoking (adults)

13.0%2019-2023 · Scottish Health Survey

Physically active (adults)

34.0%2019-2023 · Scottish Health Survey

Overweight or obese (adults)

71.0%2016-2019 · Scottish Health Survey

Life expectancy (male)

77.4 years2021 to 2023 · ONS

Life expectancy (female)

81.9 years2021 to 2023 · ONS

Broadband and mobile

63.3% of 137,076 homes and businesses can get gigabit-capable broadband, January 2026

2,040 premises can't get decent broadband · 40% of premises use full fibre

These figures show what is available, not what people buy. “Decent” broadband means 10 Mbit/s download and 1 Mbit/s upload, the standard set by the broadband Universal Service Obligation. Full-fibre use is the share of all premises with a full-fibre connection in use. Mobile figures count the four networks Ofcom reports (EE, O2, Three and Vodafone) and are modelled predictions of signal strength; 5G figures use Ofcom’s high-confidence measure.

Source: Ofcom, Connected Nations (January 2026 data). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Sewage spills

16,738 hours of sewage spills from 107 storm overflows in 2025

6,262 spills counted · 65 of 75 overflows with figures spilled at least once · 5th most spill hours of 32 council areas in Scotland

Storm overflows are run by water companies, not by the council. The company responsible here is Scottish Water.

The 15 overflows with the longest spills

A storm overflow releases diluted sewage into a river or the sea when sewers are overloaded, usually in heavy rain. Hours are the total time all spills lasted. Scottish Water counts each separate spill, and for some overflows publishes only spills longer than 15 minutes 30 seconds, so these figures are not directly comparable with England’s. Volume is published only for overflows reported to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). 32 overflows have no figures for 2025, so the totals may be lower than the true amount. 1 overflow discharges below the high-tide line or out at sea and is counted with the nearest council area. Compare every council, constituency and water company.

Source: Scottish Water, overflow event data (2025 figures), licensed under the Open Government Licence. Locations placed in council areas using Office for National Statistics boundaries (contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026).