Spending watchdog calls for 'better leadership' of Glasgow City Council amid £110m budget gap
The Accounts Commission has warned Glasgow City Council has reached a “challenging point” over its finances, homelessness and other pressures.
Scotland’s spending watchdog has demanded better “leadership, responsibility and robust oversight” at Glasgow City Council amid a warning the local authority’s finances have been “pushed to breaking point”.
The stark report from the Accounts Commission has warned that the city council is at a “challenging point” as it grapples with financial pressures, rising levels of homelessness, growing demand for services, persistent high poverty levels and unresolved equal pay claims.
Auditors have warned that each of the challenges are significant in their own right but must be dealt with as the local authority draws up plans to fill a funding gap of at least £110m ahead of next year’s annual budget.
The Accounts Commission has stressed that greater transparency and clarity about the scale of the financial challenges facing the council is needed.
A new report has warned the council must ensure it has the capacity and skills to address these challenges, whilst managing complex, high-risk programmes, including implementing a new finance system.
Glasgow City Council’s spending on homelessness increased from £38m last year to an expected £56 million in 2026/27.
Andrew Burns, deputy chair of the Accounts Commission, said: ‘There is no doubt about the scale and complexity of the challenges that Glasgow City Council faces, particularly equal pay and homelessness.
“The council is at a challenging point. Decisions made over the coming months will have a significant bearing on financial sustainability and on the services that communities receive in future.”
He added: “We need to see leadership, responsibility and robust oversight by councillors. The council must also prioritise its medium-term financial planning, setting out the choices the council needs to make to live within its means.
“There must be clear plans to redesign services, the resources needed, costs and savings and the impact on communities and budgets. These are vital to ensure the council and its services are sustainable for the future.”
Scottish Labour local government spokesperson, Joe Fagan, said: “This report paints a stark picture about the huge challenges faced by Glasgow.
“The budget gap of £110 million is significant and will likely require very difficult decisions to be made, which will impact on people living right across the city.
Scottish Conservative local government spokesman, Alexander Burnett, said: “This is a stark warning that Glasgow’s finances and frontline services have been pushed to breaking point by years of SNP failure.
“Savage cuts to council budgets, a failure to build enough homes and the disastrous decision to ditch local connection rules have all piled pressure on a city already struggling with record homelessness and thousands living in temporary accommodation.
“Now Glasgow faces a staggering blackhole of £110 million in their finances meaning local people will be left facing swingeing cuts and higher council tax bills because of the SNP’s mismanagement.”
SNP depute council leader and city treasurer, Ricky Bell said: “The issues and challenges called out in this report are not a surprise to us – they are things that we are planning for and working to address every single day.
“The Accounts Commission recognises that many of those challenges are not unique to Glasgow – and that others, such as the pressure on homelessness budgets, are not of the city’s making.
“I’m confident that, if they were to look again today, they would recognise that areas where we maybe couldn’t give them the certainty they would have liked even a month ago have really moved on quite significantly.”
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