Council tax rise could fund street cleaning and pothole repairs in Glasgow

Council tax for Glasgow residents is set to rise from April amid plans to invest more money into street cleaning and pothole repairs.

Glasgow City Council meets on Thursday to agree a budget for the financial year 2025/26, and city treasurer Ricky Bell, SNP, has said a tax increase of around 6 or 7% is likely to be proposed.

His group are in talks with the city’s Greens over a possible deal to pass a budget, so Cllr Bell said his proposals are “not totally tied down yet”.

However, if council tax was to rise by 7% then a Band D household could be expected to pay in the region of £1,604 before water charges are applied.

Scottish Water has announced average monthly household bills will increase by around £44 per year from April 1 — equating to a rise of 9.9% in charges. A Band D home will pay about £600 in 2025/26.

Those in Band A could pay council tax of around £1,069, with Band B facing charges in the area of £1,247 and a Band C home near to £1,425. For Band E, the potential increase would cost around £2,107 while Band F could be in the region of £2,606. Water charges would be added to these costs too.

Councillor Bell said during discussions with community councils in his ward, most people have been “really positive” about a plan to ringfence some of the money if “it makes the city look better”.

The SNP wants to use the money raised for priorities like street cleaning, parks and filling potholes. Cllr Bell said: “The government has given us a settlement this year that is better than we anticipated so it is about £36m above the flat cash that we thought we would get.

“We are investing some of that money. We are also looking at the possibility of raising some additional money, so we will probably have a council tax increase of maybe around 6 or 7% this year.

“What we will do then is ringfence that other 2% to invest in the priorities that people are talking about.”

He added: “We need to get back to a better level than what we are at. You are not going to cure 14 years of austerity in one budget but it is at least hopefully making us get back on track.”

Just over £25m of cuts and increased charges in the coming financial year 2025/26 were agreed last year.

However, the SNP has decided to remove planned education cuts, which would have seen teaching jobs lost, after talks with the EIS union — a move the Greens also support.

Cllr Bell explained: “Putting the teacher savings in the budget was not something we wanted to do, we had nowhere else to go in terms of the money. We didn’t have enough money.

“The Scottish Government has given us more money this year and so we’ve taken teacher savings back off the table.”

He added the council plans to work with the union to restore the teaching roles removed last year.

The council is facing a £10.2m pressure due to a rise in employers’ national insurance contributions, which could be covered by a budget support fund — a reserve set up in 2022.

Cllr Bell said the UK Government wasn’t fully funding the cost of the increase. He added: “Glasgow has a £15m gap, the Scottish Government has said they will give us £5m of that. We’ve still got a £10m gap to fill, which is a bizarre way of funding public service.

“The UK Government is saying we are using this money to fund public service, but we are going to take £15m of that back off you.

“That’s constraining us in terms of our investment but I think we are at that stage now where the city really wants and needs to see some of that investment take place.”

He said a 7% rise could be “one of the lowest in Scotland” as many councils are using council tax increases to cover “their national insurance debt”.

The budget support fund was set up after a change in the way PFI deals are accounted for “freed up a one-off £80m”.