Glasgow budget negotiations continuing as priorities revealed

Pledges on a free public transport trial, reopening shuttered city venues and helping people cope with the cost of living crisis could be required to pass Glasgow’s budget for the next year.

The city’s SNP group does not have a majority and has relied on support from the Greens to get its budget plans approved in recent years.

City Treasurer Ricky Bell has been negotiating with opposition councillors over a possible agreement ahead of Thursday’s meeting, when a £19.7m shortfall will need to be plugged.

Talks ongoing

And the Green group has said it has three priorities: addressing the cost of living, the reopening of council venues and climate action.

Glasgow Labour leader Malcolm Cunning said his group has yet to negotiate over a deal and he believes the SNP will reach an agreement with the Greens.

Cllr Jon Molyneux, the Green group co-convenor, said there have been “a couple of conversations” about a deal since an extra £14.2m from the Scottish Government cut an initial £34m spending gap.

There has been “no agreement yet” with the groups discussing “points of difference”.

The Green group will table its own budget but Cllr Molyneux said: “We understand it’s not going to be the budget that passes. No party has a majority, we have to work constructively where priorities align.”

After a Green motion was passed by the council in December, council leader Susan Aitken wrote to the Scottish Government to seek support for a free public transport pilot in Glasgow.

In response, the then transport minister Graeme Dey said he was “certainly supportive” of the pilot, but “unable to commit to funding” ahead of “seeing your proposals”.

Cllr Molyneux said the pilot would be part of the Green’s climate action proposals as well as more food growing spaces and increasing biodiversity.

He said: “We are concerned that it ends up in a to and fro between the council and ministers. We want the council to commit to designing what a pilot would look like and the cost.

“That could be a gamechanger for tackling the climate emergency and providing opportunities for people to access jobs.”

The Greens also want measures to address the cost of living crisis, which will “impact on our most vulnerable citizens”, including extra support for foster/kinship carers whose allowance hasn’t been increased for a decade.

Cllr Molyneux said: “The real concern is that we may lose people from foster care. That would increase the costs to the council and it would impact greatly on children who need that support.”

Council tax rise expected

He is “confident” libraries will stay open but wants a timeline for more Glasgow Life venues to reopen, such as St Mungo’s museum and Provand’s Lordship.

A council tax rise is expected this year as well as cuts and/or service charge increases to cover the £19.7m hole.

The Greens will propose some savings, where “the worst impacts are avoided” as well as a “reasonable” council tax rise and the use of reserves in an effort to “spread the load”.

Labour is proposing “significant investment” to address the “cleansing crisis” in the city, Cllr Cunning said.

It would also retain the affordable warmth dividend for the elderly, which was brought back on a one-year basis in October following calls from the Labour group, after being scrapped during last year’s budget.

Cllr Cunning said his party wants to invest in Glasgow Life to reopen more facilities and put money into the bulk uplift service so it can be done “at no charge”.

He added his group plans to freeze some charges, including bereavement costs, and will use a “significant amount of reserves” as well as a 3% council tax rise to find around £12m towards the budget gap.

It also intends to use some Scottish Government ring-fenced money, for maintaining public-teacher ratios, as it is a “target that we have been meeting for years”. The money “can be put down as a saving but makes no difference to the service”, Cllr Cunning said.

Conservative group leader Thomas Kerr said his group’s budget proposals, which include a council tax freeze, stood up for the people of Glasgow.

It also proposes a return to two-weekly bin collections, scrapping the bulk uplift charge, an increase in support for children and young people in foster and kinship care, retaining the affordable warmth payment and £1.5m for road repairs.

Cllr Kerr said: “Many Glaswegian families are struggling and we have firmly recognised that with our plans to freeze council tax as well as retaining affordable warmth payments for our elderly population.”

The Conservative group said its budget is fully costed, but Cllr Cunning questioned how they can propose a council tax freeze without taking “awful cuts options”

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