90% of the inherited debt of 304 million euros has already been paid off, and it now stands at 49 million. The average supplier payment period is 9 days, compared with 1,492 days in 2011.

All economic indicators are now in positive territory and the Town Council is no longer an administration under the control of the central government. Specifically, the Town Council achieved a budget surplus of 31.8 million euros in the 2022 final accounts.

Almost 200 million euros have been invested in improving, equipping and modernising the city, placing Estepona among the public administrations that invest the most per inhabitant. In 2022 a record figure of 25.5 million euros was reached in public projects and facilities.

Estepona Town Council reports the economic figures recorded. Firstly, the Municipal Austerity Plan has managed to cut municipal spending by 200 million euros, through the introduction of a series of austerity and rigour measures that have helped eliminate superfluous spending and the waste of public resources.

As a result, Estepona Town Council is today an administration with healthy finances that is responsible in its management of public funds. Among the first initiatives carried out in 2011 was the elimination of more than a hundred corporate mobile phone lines and telephony contracts, which has since saved more than 4 million euros.

To this must be added the more than 400,000 euros that the Town Council has saved because the mayor gave up having an official vehicle. Staff costs, which came to represent 110% of municipal revenue in 2011, now stand at 41%.

In addition, e-government was introduced, which made it possible to eliminate paper in all municipal procedures. Another of the measures that has generated the most savings over these years has been the creation of the central purchasing office, a body set up to consolidate all the orders needed by the various municipal departments, awarding contracts to the companies that submit the most advantageous bids.

Furthermore, over all these years Estepona Town Council has been implementing an ambitious energy efficiency plan, replacing all public street lighting with LED lights and introducing the same in public buildings, which has made it possible to reduce the city’s energy consumption by more than 30 per cent.

The savings achieved with these and other measures have allowed the Town Council to pay off 90% of the debt inherited in 2011. At present, that debt of 304 million euros stands at 49 million euros. In the 2023 municipal budget, the Town Council plans to allocate 15.4 million euros so that this debt falls below 35 million euros.

Milestones in the repayment of the inherited debt

In this regard, the dizzying pace of repayment should be noted, which produces considerable savings for the municipal coffers by avoiding the payment of the interest the debt generates. Specifically, important milestones have been reached during these years of repayment.

Thus, in 2022, 9.3 million was paid early to Social Security to fully settle the 60 million of debt inherited with this body. Previously, the debt for all the unrecorded invoices, the so-called ‘invoices in drawers’ (33 million euros), was settled; the debt inherited with the Junta de Andalucía for the improper or unjustified use of grants awarded by the regional administration to the previous socialist government (6 million euros) was settled in full; the debt inherited with the Tax Agency (18 million euros) was cleared; the entire debt inherited with the water service concessionaire (8 million euros) was paid; and 84 million euros of the inherited bank debt have already been paid, a debt generated largely by the Supplier Payment Plan, which had to be signed in 2012, derived entirely from the unpaid invoices of 2009-2011.

As regards the average supplier payment period, it stands at 9 days, compared with the 1,492 days it took to pay invoices before 2011, placing Estepona Town Council among the quickest in Spain at paying for contracted services.

2022 municipal budget final accounts

Regarding the final accounts of the 2022 municipal budget, Estepona Town Council managed to close that financial year with a budget surplus of 31.8 million euros, a record figure for the municipality that demonstrates the financial seriousness this governing team has brought to the municipal institution.

This amount will be used during this financial year to continue making investments and paying off the inherited debt mentioned above.

According to the reports of the municipal technicians, the governing team managed to finish, for the seventh consecutive year, with all economic indicators in positive territory, as it set the Town Council’s budget stability at 11.8 million euros and the cash surplus at 25.5 million euros. It should be stressed that the Town Council is no longer an administration under the control of the central government.

In this regard, it should be highlighted that since 2011 around 200 million euros of municipal funds have been invested in new projects and public facilities. Specifically, last financial year 25.5 million euros were recorded in municipal projects, the highest figure in the city’s history.

Estepona is currently the city in the province of Málaga that invests the most in facilities when its number of inhabitants is taken into account. Among the projects, the Mirador del Carmen Centre, the underground public car park at plaza del Ajedrez, the new Town Hall building, the remodelling of the seafront promenade and the various sections of the coastal corridor stand out.