It is ‘critical’ that Glasgow City Council deliver its new pay and grading structure by April 2027, the Accounts Commission has warned.

The demand comes from the auditor as the council faces mounting financial pressures, including a budget gap of at least £110m between 2026/27 and 2027/28.

Delivery of the new pay and grading structure must be a ‘collective responsibility’ for officers, councillors and trade union representatives, according to the Accounts Commission’s report.

It added that the city council must implement a new finance system and resolve its equal pay claims. The local authority should also tackle rising homelessness, high poverty levels, and the growing demand for services.

Homelessness spending alone is set to rise from £38m last year to an expected £56m in 2026/27.

The watchdog says greater transparency and clarity about the scale of its financial challenges is needed to inform decisions facing councillors and their impact on communities and services.

Comment

Andrew Burns, Deputy Chair of the Accounts Commission, said the council is ‘at a challenging point,’ with decisions made over the coming months set to shape its financial sustainability and future services.

He called for stronger leadership and oversight from councillors, along with a clear medium-term financial plan setting out the choices needed to live within its means.

Cllr 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.

‘It’s unfortunate that the period when the Commission received and considered this report really straddled the point where we took papers to committee on our new pay and grading system and setting out a new financial forecast.

‘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.’