Tuesday February 24th 2026
Glasgow City Chambers
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Drew Sandelands
Council tax in Glasgow will rise by 5.9% and a borrowing plan has been approved to cover the city’s huge homelessness bill.
Glasgow City Council has passed a budget for 2026/27 — after a deal between the SNP and Greens — which includes the roll-out of free school meals to all primary seven pupils.
Parking tariffs are being frozen for two years at a cost of £4.9m, cremation charges will rise and a council tax premium on empty and second homes will be doubled to raise £1.6m.
Almost £3m is being spent on improving gully cleaning in Glasgow, with services on “priority neighbourhood and arterial routes” set to be tripled.
An estimated £56m homelessness bill was the main pressure facing the council in the coming financial year. City treasurer Ricky Bell, SNP, said: “As we know, the most severe pressures facing this budget are because of the failures of UK asylum and refugee policy.
“The crisis is not the making of those who are choosing to make Glasgow their home, and it is not our making either, yet it is Glasgow who are expected to absorb the consequences of failed policy made by a UK Government hundreds of miles away.”
Glasgow declared a housing emergency in late 2023 due to rising pressure on homelessness services, which the council said had been exacerbated by Home Office plans to speed up the processing of asylum claims.
Costs have soared due to high demand for accommodation, with around £4.5m per month spent on unsuitable B&Bs or hotels. Around half of the demand for homelessness assistance is from refugees.
In 2026/27, the council faces an estimated £56m bill. Following talks with the Scottish Government, it has been allowed to use its capital grant to pay the cost of borrowing. The government will provide £2.5m to assist with borrowing costs.
Cllr Jon Molyneux, Glasgow Greens co-leader, said: “This is not a solution… it is a sticking plaster that gets us beyond today without having to make horrendous cuts.
“The bill is set to keep on growing, unless there is urgent action to reduce demand, to bring more homes on stream and to share the costs more fairly.
“And while I continue to worry that the Scottish Government isn’t grasping the urgency of this, at least they are now at the table. The UK Government’s total abdication of responsibility here is an absolute shameful disgrace.”
The council tax rise — almost double the current rate of inflation (3%) — will bring in an extra £17.1m while £4.8m of savings are being made. Almost £17m of revenue investment and £6.4m of capital spend are also included in the budget.
At Whitehill Pool, which is closed due to the discovery of dangerous reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), the revenue budget has been temporarily reduced to save £500,000. Instead, £50,000 will be spent on a business case which will consider options to reopen the pool.
A £1m cut to a fund which supports events and conferences in the city has been agreed. Bereavement service charges for non-residents of Glasgow are set to raise £150,000.
And £375,000 is expected to be made through increased prices for a range of cremation services. Paid-for tours of the city chambers, and increased use for events, will raise £25,000.
Investment plans include £1m for extending free school meals to all primary pupils, spending £715,000 on six more neighbourhood clean teams and funding improvements to the city centre, which include enhanced security monitoring.
Cllr Bell said the council was “reinstating 24-hour CCTV monitoring in recognition of changing crime patterns”.
The freeze on parking tariffs will cover “the inner, outer, and business parking permit rates for two years”, the city treasurer said. “During that time, we will gather detailed evidence so future decisions are firmly grounded in what is right for the city,” he added.
An extra £5.4m is being provided for health and social care services, managed by the integration joint board (IJB), which faces a difficult budget next month.
Councillors have set aside £1m for repairs and energy efficiency works on around 70 old tenements while £100,000 will be spent on work to develop rent control zones, which could be rolled out in 2027/28.
There is also £350,000 to assess school playgrounds and identify priority areas for investment. A £1m heritage building viability grant pilot scheme aims to “close development deficits and bring empty historic properties back into productive use”.
While the SNP/Green budget was passed, Labour and Your Party tabled their own proposals. Labour wanted to raise council tax by 3.4%.
After the budget meeting, Cllr Catherine Vallis, Labour’s finance lead, said: “The SNP and Greens have again teamed up to raise council tax, this time just shy of 6%.
“People across Glasgow are fed up with council tax rises to subsidise cuts from the SNP.
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