Glasgow is to formally seek more powers from Holyrood and Westminster to help revitalise its city centre.
While talks have taken place at officer level, councillors will now make a formal approach to devolve more powers around absentee property owners, ease the use of compulsory purchase orders and reduce VAT on property conversions.
Convenor for city centre recovery, Angus Millar, told fellow councillors in a meeting last week: ‘The administration has been taking forward engagement with the UK and Scottish governments about additional powers that Glasgow needs.
‘We will continue to strongly advocate for more powers such as around compulsory sales orders and land value capture mechanisms.'
The council views plans by the Scottish government to introduce community wealth building legislation as an opportunity to secure more freedoms.
It follows the announcement that powers over empty property relief will be devolved to councils in Scotland from next month.
Cllr Millar said that Glasgow was also ‘seeking a review of existing powers that are available to local authorities’ with the aim of ‘making sure these are as easy as possible for us to use’.
Council leader Susan Aitken said Glasgow was seeking to ‘pioneer’ the use of new powers and freedoms.
This article was originally published by The MJ (£).
