Unions demand council sets a ‘ no cuts’ budget
UNION leaders want councillors in Glasgow to set a ‘ no cuts’ budget next month.
City Treasurer Richard Bell will announce his plans to deal with the biggest budget deficit the city has faced.
It is estimated to be as much as £ 100 million when all departments and services are considered, and it has been warned it will mean cuts to services and job losses across the council. Now, leaders of the main public sector unions in the city are calling for radical action.
GMB, Unison, Unite and the EIS issued a joint statement on the financial situation facing Glasgow.
They said the latest £ 100m is on top of £ 400m of cuts since 2010, stating “this cannot go on”.
A spokesperson said: “The city’s councillors often lecture the trade unions about how setting a no cuts budget and fighting for more money is too difficult.
“But they weren’t elected for an easy life and their approach of meekly passing on cuts year after year has devastated council services. If they won’t adopt a different approach now, then when?
“We don’t need ‘ managers of decline’, we need councillors that will stand up and seriously take on the national governments.”
The council is legally required
to set a balanced budget and if it didn’t, then council tax would automatically increase by the amount to meet the gap.
On current levels, this would mean a more than 30% hike to plug a gap of between £ 70m and £ 100m.
The unions argue more could be done in the short term to hold off further cuts and advocate using borrowing powers, refinancing the PFI/ PPP deals and using reserves.
The trade unions also believe the current Scottish local government funding arrangements disadvantage Glasgow.
They argue: “The multi- faceted impacts on council services of higher levels of poverty and the
city status of Glasgow are not sufficiently recognised at present.”
The council said it is looking at measures to limit the impact of spending pressures.
A spokesperson for Glasgow City Council said: “Councils are legally required to set balanced budgets.
“With inflation running high, that means raising more money or spending less, and, in reality, a bit of both. Glasgow is already using a significant proportion of its reserves to try and mitigate the cost of living crisis and protect communities and the services they rely on.
“We also already continually look at financing costs and other technical adjustments.”