Anger as Glasgow to sell its crown jewels
Deal to offload iconic buildings for £200m to fund equal pay
A RAFT of iconic Scots buildings could be sold off by council bosses in a bid to fund equal pay claims, it was revealed yesterday.
Critics branded the plan ‘absolutely horrendous’ and questioned its legality after councillors in SNP-run Glasgow approved a deal which will see six properties, including the City Chambers and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, sold to an arms-length, councilowned company and leased back to the local authority.
The sale is expected to raise around £200million of the £270million required to settle the latest round of equal-pay compensation and costs. The other properties due to be sold are Kelvin Hall, the Gallery of Modern Art, Sighthill School campus and Gowanbank School campus.
Annual lease costs are expected to be at least £10million a year for between 30 to 40 years, although final negotiations are still taking place.
A similar agreement in 2019 on buildings including the Riverside Museum and Emirates Arena was worth £500million.
The leaseback option means that although the buildings have been sold to City Property Glasgow LLP, the council retains control of the operational running of the buildings.
A report to the city administration committee yesterday stated: ‘The sale and leaseback capital receipts will significantly contribute to the overall funding available for the settlement of the remaining equal pay liability.’
Thousands of compensation claims from more than a decade ago are due to women following an equal pay dispute.
Campaigners said workers in areas such as cleaning and catering were paid up to £3 an hour less than those in male-dominated fields such as refuse collection.
Unions GMB, Unite, Equality4Action and Unison are working on behalf of claimants and have already agreed a repayment strategy.
Council leader Susan Aitken said: ‘I’m determined to deliver pay justice for thousands of women in our workforce. We are, again, making this a priority early in the council term and seeking to put right a wrong that has damaged the council, its workforce and the city for too long.’
GMB Scotland organiser Sean Baillie said: ‘This is a consequence of the council’s chronic sex discrimination of low-paid women workers and there will be highly paid unelected officials sitting uncomfortably in the City Chambers today.
‘Let’s also be clear this plan is to generate funding to support negotiations for interim equal pay settlements and not full and final settlements, which can only be achieved when the council has finally replaced its discriminatory job evaluation system.’
Christine Jardine, Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, said:
‘This is absolutely horrendous. The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and the City Chambers are a deeply important part of the city and to sell them off would be devastating. Due to years of an SNP Government slashing local authority budgets, this is now a possibility.
‘Scottish Liberal Democrats would give councils the funding they have been starved of for years and prevent the SNP from doing damage to Scotland’s cultural heritage.’
Former MSP and land rights campaigner Andy Wightman branded the plans ‘incompetent’ and questioned whether the buildings could legally be sold. He said ‘I look forward to the court cases. The City Chambers and Kelvingrove are part of the Common Good of the City and will require court approval to be sold.’