Glasgow City Council tax to rise - as budget deal agreed

City treasurer Ricky Bell set out how the council will cover a £19.7m shortfall and respond to “covid recovery, the cost of living crisis and the priorities identified by our citizens”.

Over £25m will be spent on neighbourhood deep cleans, the bulk uplift charge is to be changed and £1m will be given to each of the 23 council wards for priorities such as pothole and pavement repairs.

A raft of one-off measures are aimed at tackling the cost of living crisis, with £1m to help with energy bills, including fuel top-up vouchers.

The almost £20m deficit was reduced significantly as nearly £9m of Scottish Government funding to bring the pupil-teacher ratio to the national average could be reallocated.

Cllr Bell said Glasgow “has been ahead of that ratio for some years” and he saved £1.5m due to a government grant which replaces funds usually put into the council’s holiday food programme.

However, parking charges are set to rise to bring in around £3m, and over £7m has been pulled from the council’s reserves.

Lifting council tax will raise an extra £6.9m for the city, with the Band D charge increasing from £1,386 to £1,428.

The rise comes at the time of a cost of living crisis, with water charges, energy bills and National Insurance all going up.

And city treasurer Ricky Bell, SNP, said: “We cannot wait for a UK Tory Government which cuts the benefits of the most vulnerable to step up to the plate.”

He added it was a “listening” city government which would address residents’ concerns.

Over £25m will be borrowed to create 13 new and permanent teams to “undertake a rolling programme of neighbourhood deep cleans”. Each neighbourhood will be visited once a year for a three-week operation.

Cllr Bell said: “Covid has led to a significant reduction of some council services, perhaps most visibly the impact on the look and feel of our communities.”

The bulk uplift charge is to be “simplified” at £5 per item and £200,000 will be spent on the environmental crime enforcement team, with ‘days of action’ planned.

Glasgow’s SNP group has a minority and a deal was struck late last night with the Greens to pass the budget.

Cllr Jon Molyneux, Greens, said: “We must find a way to set a budget, it is our legal duty but it is also a moral duty to use the resources we do have to respond to our citizens immediate needs and deliver the long-term transformation our city needs.”

A climate action fund will prioritise work on a city-wide 20mph zone (£2.1m), rooftop solar panels on council buildings (£2m), food growing (£200,000) and a wildflower meadow plan (£1.5m).

There will be £350,000 put into a green economy unit after Cllr Bell said tackling the climate emergency is “one of the greatest economic opportunities we have in the next decade and beyond”.

And there is also £100,000 to design a fully-costed proposal for a free public transport pilot, which was a priority of the Green group.

The SNP and Greens will use £650,000 to reopen St Mungo’s Museum and Provand’s Lordship and put £1.1m towards opening more community centres in consultation with communities.

There is a £2.9 contribution to “the restoration of the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens”.

They also asked the Integration Joint Board, which delivers health and social care services, to consider increasing the allowance for foster carers by 10% from April 2022.

A number of parking charges are being introduced, with £2.2m to be raised through an on-street price increase in inner and outer zones.

They will bring in £684,000 by introducing a sliding scale increase to purchase more than one residential parking permit.

And a saving of £400,000 was made as money usually spent on bus passes for school children is not required due to the introduction of free bus travel for under 22s.

Just under £30,000 will be raised by increasing the cost of a school meal from £1.90 to £2 from August 2022.