GLASGOW: Budget preview as city council faces £60m funding gap

Glasgow’s SNP group will bring forward its plan to plug a £60m hole in the council’s finances tomorrow as the city faces another year of cuts.

City treasurer Ricky Bell is expected to set out how his party proposes to balance the books for 2023/24, but he will do so against a backdrop of more than £400m of cuts in the last decade.

He has said the UK’s “inflation crisis has been devastating for public finances” and “councils are caught up in that”.

Cuts to services, job losses and increased charges will be on the table while Cllr Bell is set to propose how much council tax will rise.

Health and social care services also face a £40m shortfall, which will be addressed by the Glasgow City Integration Joint Board IJB when it meets on March 22.

Glasgow Labour won’t present an alternative budget tomorrow, a move criticised by the SNP. Instead, Labour councillors are pledging to stand up to the Scottish Government, with calls for more funding.

The Conservatives also won’t put forward budget proposals while the city’s Green group said it would continue working on plans, but won’t support any budget which would “slash statutory services”.

If no party proposes an amendment, it is understood the SNP budget could pass without the need for a vote.

Greens had called on acting finance secretary John Swinney MSP to attend an emergency summit in Glasgow today to highlight the challenges facing the city.

However, the short notice announcement and news of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation meant cross-party attendance wasn’t secured.

Council officials were asked to draw up savings options of 10% for each department for councillors to consider.

Leaked options in education included a reduction in the number of teachers — which the Scottish Government has said must be maintained — and closing primary schools earlier on Fridays.

Other proposals listed by officials were increased street parking charges in and out of the city centre and in Pollok Park, reducing grass cutting, introducing a tariff on the council’s electric vehicle charging network and rolling out brown bin permits.

Reduced opening hours or services at some Glasgow Life venues, including Tramway and the Mitchell Library, have also been suggested.

Options also included removing school crossing patrols at signalised crossings, closing Tollcross Children’s Farm and selling the Clydesdale horses which were previously kept in Pollok Park.

The complete closure of Queen’s Park Glasshouse and removal of kerbside glass collections are also among leaked proposals from officials.

Leaked documents show options for the IJB include slashing £3.5m from a budget to buy care home beds for older people, closing Hamilton Park Avenue children’s residential home and shutting Carlton Day Centre for people with learning disabilities.

A support service for children “living with a parent with alcohol and drug problems” could be decommissioned to save £600,000 and £2m cut from the Glasgow Alliance to End Homelessness, which helps provide emergency accommodation to homeless people.

Cllr George Redmond, the Labour group leader, has said Glasgow’s budget has been “slashed year-on-year” by the Scottish Government.

“Our city has had enough,” he said. “I’ve had enough. Glasgow Labour has had enough.

“By not submitting a budget amendment, we in Glasgow will be standing up and saying this simply cannot go on. The people that we serve in this city deserve so much better. They need investment and growth in our economy.”

Cllr Jon Molyneux, Greens co-leader, has said the council needs “more revenue raising powers — alongside the need for council tax to be scrapped and replaced with a more progressive local property tax”.

He said his group has been “working hard in an impossible situation for months as we try to find a solution” and the Scottish Government has left Glasgow in a “desperate position”.

While unions have said councillors’ approach “of meekly passing on cuts year after year has devastated council services”. “We don’t need ‘managers of decline’, we need councillors that will stand up and seriously take on the national governments.”

Union members will protest outside the city chambers ahead of tomorrow’s meeting.