I have lived long enough in this country to know that council tax only ever moves in one direction. So the news that Glasgow is pushing bills up by somewhere around 5.9% should shock precisely nobody, though it will sting plenty of folk who are already struggling to keep the lights on.
The SNP and Green groups on Glasgow City Council struck their budget deal ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, and the headline numbers tell a familiar story: a £36.8 million spending gap, a homelessness bill that has ballooned to roughly £56 million, and a council borrowing its way through another year in the hope that somebody in Edinburgh or London eventually picks up the phone.
City treasurer Ricky Bell put it plainly: “We are very, very conscious that everybody is in a cost of living crisis. Even people that are working full time, some folk are doing two or three jobs and still finding it difficult to make ends meet.”
He is not wrong. But consciousness and action are different things entirely.
The Homelessness Elephant in the Room
Glasgow declared a housing emergency back in late 2023, and since then the situation has deteriorated rather than improved. The council is spending roughly £4.5 million every single month putting people into B&Bs and hotels because there is nowhere else for them to go. About half of the demand comes from refugees who have been granted leave to remain and then find themselves with no roof over their heads.
Bell describes this as “not of Glasgow’s making,” and there is truth in that. The Home Office’s decision to accelerate asylum processing without any corresponding plan for accommodation was always going to create pressure somewhere, and that somewhere turned out to be Scotland’s biggest city.
The borrowing arrangement with the Scottish Government is, by Bell’s own admission, a “one year solution to get us through this tricky position.” The council will use capital grant money to cover borrowing costs, then repay the lot over 30 years. Next year, the homelessness bill is expected to hit £70 million. The year after that, £90 million. Borrowing at that scale is not a solution. It is a credit card with a very long statement.
Free School Meals and Gully Cleaning
There is some genuinely good news in the budget. Glasgow will become the first council in Scotland to offer free school meals to all primary seven pupils, extending a programme that has been one of the quieter successes of recent years. If you have ever watched a child try to concentrate on fractions while hungry, you will understand why this matters.
There is also extra money for cleansing, including gully cleaning to prevent the kind of street flooding that has become depressingly regular. It is not glamorous spending, but it is the sort of thing that makes an actual difference to people walking to school or work.
The Greens initially called the budget deal a “sticking plaster,” which is fair comment, though they signed up for it anyway. That is politics for you: complain loudly, then vote yes and claim credit for the bits you like.
What Happens Next
Bell says talks with the Scottish Government about longer term funding will begin next week. The UK Government, meanwhile, has apparently been lobbied repeatedly and responded with very little. Both tiers of government seem content to watch Glasgow absorb the pressure while offering sympathetic noises and not much else.
My view is straightforward. A 5.9% council tax rise on top of years of rising costs is going to hurt people who can least afford it. But the alternative, cutting services that are already stretched thin, would hurt them more. Glasgow needs help from Holyrood and Westminster, and it needs it before next year’s budget makes this one look modest by comparison.
