Holding the council to account · Checked 2026-08-02
What this means
Glasgow City said it needed £86.7m more than it expected to get this year. Nearly every council in Scotland said the same thing. On the measures every council reports the same way, it is worse than the Scottish average on 5 of 6. It missed 4 of its own service goals. Independent auditors have 1 warning about it that is still open. Every figure below links to the official paper it came from.
Words with a dotted underline have a quick explanation. Hover or tap them.
The headline
If you only read one part, read this. The detailed figures and official source links come after it.
Extra money it said it needed
£86.7m
to pay for planned services
Nearly every council says this every year. It is a plan, not money missing from the bank. The law says they cannot plan to spend more than they get. So the gap always gets closed. Usually that is partly your council tax.
Worse than the Scotland average
5 of 6
measures compared
Every council reports these the same way, so it is a fair comparison. The other 1 is better than average.
Watchdog warnings still open
1
not signed off
Independent auditors raised these and they are not closed yet. They do not work for the council.
Follow the money
These figures show what the council planned to spend on everyday services and what it still needed to find. That second number is not money already missing. The final accounts show what really happened after the year ended. A pays for everyday services. A pays for big, long-term things.
Money Glasgow may need over the next two years
£109.7m
2026/27 to 2027/28
Glasgow's plan says it may need another £109.7m across the next two years to keep paying for services. This is a plan about future money, not money already missing from a bank account.
Money set aside to change the budget
Expected £105.4m
At 31 March 2023; expected to be fully used by 31 March 2026
Glasgow set aside £105.4m to help put its budget changes in place. The audit says much of it was used for new pressures and was expected to be gone by March 2026.
Money listed for Glasgow's everyday services
Over £1.7bn
2025/26
The Scottish Government lists over £1.7bn for Glasgow's everyday services in 2025/26, £86.5m more than the year before. This is money listed for the council, not its final spending result.
Source: Glasgow City Council Best Value Thematic Review 2024/25; Written answer S6W-39654: local government funding
The bit nobody explains
Councils say they need more money nearly every year, whatever they are given. Here is what that really means, and who ends up paying for it.
31 of Scotland’s 32 councils said they needed more money this year.
Only South Lanarkshire said it had money left over. Glasgow City said it needed £86.7m more.
The money from the Scottish Government went up that year, not down. Councils got £15.7bn. That is up 2% on the year before, even after prices rose. And the amount they say they are short has stayed about the same for seven years running. It works out at about 3p in every pound they spend.
Before a council sets its budget, it works out two numbers. What it thinks its services will cost. And what money it thinks it will get.
If the cost is bigger, the difference is the gap. It is a plan, made before any decisions. It is not money missing from a bank account.
The law says a council cannot plan to spend more than it gets. So the gap always gets closed. It has to be. The real question is who pays to close it.
This is every council added together, for 2026/27.
The biggest single way the gap was closed was your council tax. £221m of it. Every council in Scotland put its rate up. The average rise was 7.7%. It ran from 4% in City of Edinburgh to 10% in Aberdeenshire and Moray. That was the second year in a row. Over the two years together, bills went up 18% on average.
A lot of people assume a council has to spend the lot, or it gets less next year. That is not how the grant works.
The Scottish Government works out each council’s share using a formula. It counts things the council cannot change:
It does not count how well the council managed last year’s money. A council that comes in on budget does not get less the next year for doing it.
Council tax is only about a fifth of the money. So putting it up does not raise much next to the whole budget. But it comes straight out of your pocket.
Those are the facts. What you make of them is up to you.
Councils work out and describe their budget gap in different ways, so these figures are not a perfect like-for-like comparison. Audit Scotland says comparisons should be made with caution. Figures from Local government budgets 2026/27, Audit Scotland, for the Accounts Commission, June 2026. How the formula works is set out by SPICe, the Scottish Parliament's research service.
Promises versus results
A goal is what the council said it wanted to achieve. The result is what happened. They sit side by side here, and it is flagged when the two numbers cannot be compared fairly.
Scottish Welfare Fund Crisis Grants
Goal
95%
What happened
91%
Period: 2024/25 · 4 percentage points below goal
Source: Operational performance and delivery: 2024/25 KPI appendix
Scottish Welfare Fund Community Care Grants
Goal
95%
What happened
87%
Period: 2024/25 · 8 percentage points below goal
Source: Operational performance and delivery: 2024/25 KPI appendix
Housing Benefit
Goal
21 days or fewer
What happened
25 days
Period: 2024/25 · 4 days slower than goal
Source: Operational performance and delivery: 2024/25 KPI appendix
Housing Benefit
Goal
11 days or fewer
What happened
7 days
Period: 2024/25 · 4 days faster than goal
Source: Operational performance and delivery: 2024/25 KPI appendix
Homelessness services
Goal
All cases where the law says temporary housing must be provided
What happened
12,800 instances where temporary accommodation was not provided when it should have been
Period: 2024/25
The reports a count of instances, not a percentage. A rate must not be invented without the total number of duties or cases.
Emergency help, local decisions
In 2025/26, Glasgow City Council awarded a Crisis Grant in 63% of decided applications. Scotland's rate was 65%. The same national scheme produced council rates from 52% to 89%.
Decisions resulting in an award
63%
About 25,940 awards from 41,195 decisions.
Compared with Scotland
-2 points
Rank #21 of 32 when published award rates are ordered highest to lowest.
Decided by the deadline
100%
By the end of the next working day, January to March 2026.
Average award
£150
£3,950,416 in Crisis Grant expenditure during 2025/26.
Five complete years
Share of decisions resulting in an award
The question this council needs to answer
Glasgow City Council's published award rate is 2 percentage points below Scotland. That does not remove the need for scrutiny: the council should still publish enough information to show how decisions are made consistently and whether rejected applicants can use the review process.
A higher rate is not automatically better and a lower rate is not proof of unlawful or ruthless decision-making. The figures prove different outcomes. They do not establish motive, applicant need or decision quality on their own.
Source: Scottish Government, Scottish Welfare Fund statistics to 31 March 2026, Tables 6, 18, 24, 28 and 36. Open the source workbook.
Same ruler for all 32 councils
Every council in Scotland reports these figures the same way, so this is a fair comparison. The year is shown for each figure.
The share of the council's A-class roads flagged for repair.
Here: 35.0% · Scotland: 30.3% · 2025/26 · 4.7 percentage points more than the Scotland figure
What the council spends collecting bins, per property, each year.
Here: £102 · Scotland: £77.26 · 2024/25 · £24 more than the Scotland figure
How much of the year's council tax came in on time.
Here: 93.4% · Scotland: 95.5% · 2024/25 · 2.1 percentage points less than the Scotland figure
What the council spends on each primary pupil in a year.
Here: £7,439 · Scotland: £7,606 · 2024/25 · £167 less than the Scotland figure
Lower is not better here. It means less money spent on each child, which can mean good value or it can mean less help in the classroom. This one is not scored.
Average days lost to sickness per council worker, not counting teachers.
Here: 13.1 days · Scotland: 14.5 days · 2024/25 · 1.4 days less than the Scotland figure
The share of household waste that gets recycled.
Here: 30.6% · Scotland: 44.3% · 2024/25 · 13.7 percentage points less than the Scotland figure
The share of adults happy with how clean the streets are.
Here: 37.3% · Scotland: 57.0% · 2024/25 · 19.7 percentage points less than the Scotland figure
Figures from the Local Government Benchmarking Framework, published by the Improvement Service, the national comparison every council takes part in. Data file retrieved 2026-08-03. Check the data yourself.
Councils like yours
Comparing a big city with a small island council is not fair on either. So the Improvement Service, which runs the national benchmarking, sorts all 32 councils into groups of eight and publishes an average for each group. The grouping and every average below are theirs, not mine. Bin, road and recycling measures are grouped by how urban or rural an area is. Collection and satisfaction measures are grouped by deprivation.
For services shaped by geography, such as bins, roads and recycling
Glasgow City is grouped with the most urban councils:
For services shaped by deprivation, such as collection rates and satisfaction
Glasgow City is grouped with the most deprived councils:
The share of the council's A-class roads flagged for repair.
2025-26
In 2010-11, the first year published, the figure here was 31.1%. Figures are adjusted for inflation by the publisher, so the two years can be compared.
What the council spends collecting bins, per property, each year.
2024-25
In 2012-13, the first year published, the figure here was £66.44. Figures are adjusted for inflation by the publisher, so the two years can be compared.
How much of the year's council tax came in on time.
2024-25
In 2010-11, the first year published, the figure here was 92.3%. Figures are adjusted for inflation by the publisher, so the two years can be compared.
What the council spends on each primary pupil in a year.
2024-25
In 2010-11, the first year published, the figure here was £6,874. Figures are adjusted for inflation by the publisher, so the two years can be compared.
Lower is not better here. It means less money spent on each child, which can mean good value or it can mean less help in the classroom. This one is not scored.
Average days lost to sickness per council worker, not counting teachers.
2024-25
In 2010-11, the first year published, the figure here was 9.3 days. Figures are adjusted for inflation by the publisher, so the two years can be compared.
The share of household waste that gets recycled.
2024-25
In 2010-11, the first year published, the figure here was 24.0%. Figures are adjusted for inflation by the publisher, so the two years can be compared.
The share of adults happy with how clean the streets are.
2024-25
In 2013-14, the first year published, the figure here was 69.1%. Figures are adjusted for inflation by the publisher, so the two years can be compared.
Groups and averages from the Local Government Benchmarking Framework, Improvement Service. “Similar councils” is the average for the group of eight that includes Glasgow City, on the set of councils the publisher uses for that measure.
Outside checks
These are checks by people outside the council: Audit Scotland, the Accounts Commission and the Scottish Housing Regulator. An is a point they recorded after checking the books or how a service works. is the formal name for one of those checks. It is not a gold star for every service.
Audit Scotland / Accounts Commission · 2026-03
The council did not have a clear plan for the next few years. The audit warned that this could lead to short-term decisions, and that the money saved by changing services had not been clearly shown or counted.
What was recommended: Join the money plan to the service-change plan and show exactly how much each major change should save.
The recorded response: A for 2026–2028 was presented in August 2025; a 10-year was under development.
Source: Glasgow City Council Best Value Thematic Review 2024/25
Audit Scotland / Accounts Commission · 2026-03
The new Glasgow Community Plan results system was not ready to test in 2025, so it was not yet possible to check all the results.
What was recommended: Set a clear date for finishing and using the system so progress can be measured.
The recorded response: The Council and partners said a first draft and testing work were ongoing across the Child Poverty Programme.
Source: Glasgow City Council Best Value Thematic Review 2024/25
Audit Scotland / Accounts Commission · 2025-09-04
Five senior officers were given large early-retirement and redundancy payouts. The review found that the process and the decisions behind them fell short of the standards expected of public servants.
What your council said it would do
A is something the council said it would do. We look for a date, an owner and later proof. Saying it in a plan is not the same as finishing it.
The Council's 2022–2027 lists reducing poverty and inequality in Glasgow's communities as one of its four Grand Challenges.
The review records poverty as the council and partnership's main service-change focus, but says stronger results and money evidence are still needed.
Source: Glasgow City Council Best Value Thematic Review 2024/25
The Council said a 10-year would be developed after its 2026–2028.
The review recorded the as under development and gave September 2026 as the date for putting it in place.
Source: Glasgow City Council Best Value Thematic Review 2024/25
The Council and its community-planning partners committed to a first draft and iterative testing of the framework for the Glasgow Community Plan.
The audit records the framework as not finalised for 2025 testing and says the Council reported ongoing draft and testing work. Whether the May 2026 milestone was met needs a newer .
Source: Glasgow City Council Best Value Thematic Review 2024/25
Glasgow said it planned to publish an updated temporary accommodation strategy and improve alternatives to hotels and bed-and-breakfast accommodation.
The Scottish Housing records the plan but this sample does not claim publication or delivery after the proposed month.
This is a first, source-complete record, not a claim that every council decision is covered. These gaps stay visible so the page cannot pretend to know more than the evidence supports.
Audit Scotland / Accounts Commission · 2026-03
The £109.7m Glasgow says it may need over two years. Also the £105.4m set aside to help change the budget, the missing long-term money plan, the unfinished results system and the council's stated poverty priority.
Audit Scotland / Accounts Commission · 2025-09-04
The dated finding about the process that allowed five senior officers to receive large early-retirement and redundancy payouts.
Glasgow City Council · 2025-05-07
The council's own goals and actual results for Scottish Welfare Fund grants and Housing Benefit claim processing in 2024/25.
Scottish Housing Regulator · 2026-04-02
The 's statement that Glasgow has a serious homelessness-service problem, 12,800 cases without temporary accommodation in 2024/25, and the council's plan for temporary housing.
Scottish Parliament (Scottish Government answer) · 2025-08-15
The Scottish Government's listed 2025/26 money for Glasgow's everyday council services and the change from the year before.
Council officers and elected members can send corrections or a response through the contact page. Confirmed changes will be dated and recorded here.
Straight answers
The Glasgow City area page shows the local poverty, work and pay figures that explain why council decisions matter.
One simple next step
Not ready to write yet?
Councils publish new figures every year, and almost nobody hears about it. I read the audits and the budget papers when they land, and send one email when the numbers move. A few times a year. Nothing else, ever.