Social work worst hit in budget cuts
GLASGOW City Council has announced its budget for the year.
Bosses will cut £53million for services in the city, it was announced following the confirmation of how much the council will receive from the Scottish Government.
Social work services are set to bear the biggest brunt with education and environment following on.
Unions will be protesting outside the City Chambers against the cuts when councillors meet to discuss the plans on Thursday.
GLASGOW City Council will cut £53million from its budget for services in the city this year.
The council has revealed the details of the cuts required after it received its final allocation from Scottish Government Finance Minister Derek Mackay earlier this month.
Mr Mackay gave the city £14m more than initially announced last year, reducing the cuts from £67m to £53m.
Social Work will bear the biggest share with a departmental budget reduction of more than £14m in 2017/18.
Education services will be cut by £5.3m and Land and Environmental services, which covers roads and parks, will be hit with a more than £5m reduction.
The council’s arm’s length companies, the ALEOs, will also take a financial hit.
Cordia, which looks after elderly people, will be cut by more than £6m, City Property by £1.5m and City Parking by half a million pounds.
Glasgow Life, which runs sports, centres libraries and museums, will be cut by £4m.
Morag Johnstone, the council’s Acting Executive Director of Finance, in a paper to be considered this week by councillors, said the council’s budget for the next financial year will be £1,215,883m.
She said on top of decisions already taken to address the expected cuts, there is still a spending gap of £2.6m.
She said that the Finance Secretary made it clear that if the offer was rejected it would be met with a “revised and less favourable offer”.
The council is expected to increase council tax by the maximum permitted 3%, raising around £7m.
Unions will be protesting outside the City Chambers against the cuts when councillors meet to discuss the plans on Thursday.
Brian Smith, Unison Glasgow Secretary, said: “The primary responsibility for cuts to council services lies with the Tories at Westminster however politicians from Glasgow and Scotland should be doing more to resist these cuts.
“Much more could be done in the short term to hold off further cuts via current council and Scottish Government borrowing powers, through the refinancing of PFI/PPP deals, the use of council reserves and a fuller use of the current taxation powers of the Scottish Parliament.
“This would not be a panacea but a tactic to protect jobs and services whilst fighting for more funding, progressive revenue raising powers for councils and additional financial powers for the Scottish Parliament.”