Getty ImagesCouncillors in Glasgow have agreed a deal to pass a budget with council tax to rise by 7.5%.
The SNP and Green groups have said their plans will include 200 extra cleansing staff, the expansion of free school meals to all primary school pupils and funding to address the climate emergency.
They are pledging to ring fence 2.5% — amounting to £6.75m — to find additional staff in environmental service and to raise capital funding for the repair and maintenance of roads, pavements and parks.
Councillors meet at 11am to set a budget for 2025/26.
City treasurer Ricky Bell, SNP, said: “This is a budget that responds to the priorities of Glaswegians, investing in frontline staff within essential service, in the fabric of our communities and in support for families and households.
“These are still extremely challenging financial times for public services, but I am delighted that our settlement from the Scottish Government this year allows us to be able to not only remove difficult future years savings that were necessary to legally balance the council budget last year, but also to make significant investments to recruit staff in neighbourhoods, cleansing and parks services and raise capital funds for the maintenance of roads and pavements.”
Plans announced by the SNP and Greens include extra support for community health and social care services, capital funding to buy up more empty homes in the city and the maintenance of teacher numbers in schools.
They intend to commit £3m to fund universal free school meals for P6, with £3m put into next year’s budget to extend to P7.
Neighbourhood “clean teams” are set to be recruited for each ward in the city to deal quickly with issues like fly-tipping, with a £2.3m investment planned.
There will also be £1.5m to recruit additional street scene cleansing staff and £1.2m for more parks operatives. An extra £3m has been earmarked for park maintenance.
Other plans include £1.4m to double the number of existing deep clean teams and an additional £20m for the upkeep of roads, cycle lanes, pavements, parks and open spaces.
The groups also intend to double Scottish Government funding to address the climate emergency to make £8m available to support renewable energy roll-out, flood prevention and other climate priorities.
A £9.5m productive use fund to buy and transform empty properties and land is expected and £500,000 to extend opening hours at swimming pools.
An additional £4m on top of Scottish Government funding is likely to be awarded to the city’s health and social care partnership, and a pilot of free public transport will be taken forward.
Both parties had previously confirmed planned cuts to teacher numbers would be removed.
Cllr Bell, depute leader of the SNP administration, added: “Along with our fellow Glasgow residents, we have been extremely frustrated by the negative impact that years of austerity have had on some of our frontline services. That’s why, now that we finally have some cash available to invest, we’re directing a large proportion of it towards increasing our cleansing workforce by around 200 staff.
“We’ll deploy those staff where they can have the most impact, including dedicated Neighbourhood Clean Teams who will be able to respond promptly to issues within communities.
He continued: “SNP councillors are acutely aware of the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis on households, which is why we wanted to keep the increase in council tax well within single figures. I’ve instructed Council officers to ringfence 2.5% of the increase to directly fund the frontline services we’ve prioritised in our budget, so Glaswegians can have confidence that’s what their contribution to local services will be used for.
“I’m very grateful to our Green colleagues for once again working with the SNP administration constructively and collegiately. We have each put the city above party to ensure that we have a budget for Glasgow that provides both stability and vital investment.”
Glasgow Green group co-leader Jon Molyneux said the most recent household survey had “sent a very clear message that we need to rebuild trust in local services, which have toiled under years of austerity.
“This budget starts to do that, channelling much-needed investment towards core council services such as cleansing, parks, and maintaining roads and pavements.
“This is a joint budget on which Greens have put our own stamp, whether that’s by increasing spending on social work services that our most vulnerable citizens rely on, by extending opening hours at swimming pools and libraries, or by investing more in climate action.
He added: “This is a budget which contains good ideas from both parties and which stands as an example of what can be done when parties put in the hard work, not just to find common ground, but to build on it.”
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