SNP plans city council shake-up

CScotland’s biggest armslength management organisation could be scrapped and many of its services brought back inhouse under budget plans to be debated by Glasgow City Council today.

Cordia, set up in 2008 by a previous Labour administration to provide services ranging from school catering to home care, would be divided between the local authority’s existing development and regeneration services division and Glasgow Life.

The move forms a key part of the SNP’S first budget for the city since it became the largest party on Scotland’s biggest local council at the 2017 elections, ending four decades of continuous Labour rule in the process.

But the Nationalists, who lack an overall majority on the authority, must find support from other at least four other councillors to pass its plans. A review of all armslength organisations in Glasgow is currently under way. If it recommends Cordia should be scrapped, subject to committee approval, the council administration will set aside £2.5 million to pay for it.

The plan would see the harmonisation of staff terms and conditionsfollowingtheongoing battle for equal pay across Scottish councils, which the SNP administration has pledged to settle.