GLASGOW MANIFESTO | 2022

GLASGOW'S

FUTURE GLASGOW'S CHOICE

MANIFESTO

2022: OUR PLAN TO TAKE GLASGOW FORWARD

The SNP’s success at the 2017 local government election brought the first change of political administration in Glasgow City Council in decades.

The task we inherited was immense: a huge bureaucracy too often disconnected from communities and citizens; historic under-investment in key services; a lack of strategic action on Glasgow’s deep-seated economic and social challenges; poor relationships with key partners; and an unwillingness to tackle difficult decisions such as the long-running equal pay scandal.

Overturning the failures of past Labour administrations has not been easy and while progress can take time, we remain determined to deliver change.

Today’s Council has been transformed from the one we inherited. Under the SNP, the Council now looks outwards to the city rather than inwards, and works closely with government, trade unions, businesses, universities, colleges, the third sector and local communities to deliver change that works for everyone.

Services are being reorganised with a neighbourhood and people-centred focus, responding more effectively to local issues and to the needs of individuals.

And driving everything we do are our core commitments to tackle poverty and inequalities, improve neighbourhoods and places, address the climate emergency and create better life chances for every Glaswegian.

Every day we work for a fairer, thriving, global Glasgow, where we pull together to solve problems and where the benefits of success are felt by all.

Susan Aitken Leader of Glasgow City Council

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Our Key Achievements Recovering from the Global Pandemic

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Glasgow in an Independent Scotland

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Promoting Health and Wellbeing

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9.1 Children and Families

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Addressing Labour's Historic Pay Injustice Against Women

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9.2 Services for Adults and Older People

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Tackling the Tories' Cost of Living Crisis

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9.3 Homelessness Services

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Building an Economy which Works for Glasgow

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9.4 Tackling Addications

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9.5 Reducing Health Inequalities

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5.1 A Thriving Economy

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Giving our Children the Best Start

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5.2 A Fairer Economy 5.3 A Greener Economy

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10.1 Delivering for Glasgow's Young People

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5.4 A Vibrant City Centre

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10.2 Nurturing and Inclusive Education

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Addressing the climate emergency 6.1 A Net Zero Glasgow

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10.3 Investing in our Young People

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Finance for Glasgow

6.2 A Green, Breathable and Biodiverse Glasgow 6.3 Transport for Glasgow

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Supporting our Workforce in a Changing Council

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Building and Improving Glasgow's Communities

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12.1 Supporting our Council Workforce 12.2 A Digital Council

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7.1 Creating Homes for Glasgow

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12.3 An Open and Well Governed Council

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7.2 Planning for Glasgow 7.3 Regeneration for Glasgow

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7.4 Managing Waste for Glasgow 7.5 Maintaining and Enhancing our Neighbourhoods

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Supporting Resilient and Empowered Communities

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8.1 Tackling Poverty and Promoting Financial Inclusion 8.2 Advancing Community Empowerment

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8.3 People Make Glasgow Communities

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8.4 Promoting Equality and Human Rights

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8.5 Promoting Gender Equality and Tackling Violence Against Women

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8.6 A City of Asylum and Refuge

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Securing a Vibrant and Global Glasgow 13.1 Celebrating our Culture

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12.2 Sports and Events

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12.3 A Global Glasgow

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EVERYTHING WE DO IS FOR GLASGOW In only five years, the SNP has: Compensated thousands of women workers for Labour’s historic gender pay discrimination Reformed Council structures, scrapping several arms-length bodies and improving the pay and conditions of thousands of workers Led the city through the unprecedented pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic and mobilised vital support for our most vulnerable citizens.

Pioneered the devolution of decision-making to local communities and opened funding opportunities for community and equalities organisations Successfully hosted COP26 – Scotland and the UK’s biggest ever international event – and established Glasgow as a world leader in the fight against climate change Secured Scottish Government backing for the construction of the Clyde Metro – a new, modern, sustainable public transport network Delivered the best ever results for Glasgow’s school-leavers going into jobs, training or further education – exceeding the Scottish average for the first time ever Delivered 1,140 hours of free early learning and childcare annually for every 3 and 4 year old and eligible 2 year olds Delivered accessible support for children and families living in poverty, maximising household incomes Tackled food insecurity with initiatives such as the Holiday Food programme and the extension of free school meals Secured record levels of funding – almost half a billion pounds since 2017 – to build 5,500 affordable homes Transformed homelessness services, with the introduction of Housing First and the creation of the Glasgow Alliance to End Homelessness Established Scotland’s first Low Emission Zone to improve air quality and secured long overdue investment to clean up Glasgow’s bus fleet Invested in active travel infrastructure and improved public spaces, tackling the historic cardomination of Glasgow’s streets and creating new Spaces for People Secured record levels of inward investment and new jobs into Glasgow and worked to ensure new job opportunities are accessible to Glaswegians of all backgrounds Within these pages you’ll find more information about how the SNP has improved Glaswegian lives and communities – and our plans for building on this over the coming five years. With your support, we intend to achieve so much more!

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RECOVERING FROM THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC

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COVID-19 changed all of our lives, and had a profound impact on our public services and economy, with many systemic inequalities made worse as a result. Glasgow SNP’s priority for the next five years is to secure a fair, green and resilient recovery from the COVID pandemic. That means: A people-centred recovery of public services driven by local needs Rebuilding the city’s economy with high quality jobs, fair work, and equal access to opportunities Supporting communities through recovery, using local knowledge and assets to help tackle poverty, inequality and social isolation Healthier, better connected places, cleaner air and warmer homes at the heart of an environmentally sustainable recovery In 2020, Scotland and the world were hit with our biggest crisis in generations – and cities like Glasgow have been particularly hard hit.

But throughout the crisis, our communities and frontline workers have risen to the challenge.

Glasgow SNP immediately introduced new lifeline services to support the most vulnerable and those hardest hit – whether providing food, supplementing household incomes or supporting businesses, while still keeping the city running. In the toughest of times, Glasgow showed what it is made of.

At the start of the first lockdown, we worked with the third sector and community organisations to quickly distribute funding for food and outreach to vulnerable people, supplying thousands of meals and vouchers and tackling social isolation.

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We brought together the Glasgow Economic Recovery Group involving business, trade unions, the third sector and academia, to develop a plan to support the city’s economy through the pandemic and into a green, fair and sustainable recovery. We also distributed over £40m in support grants to city businesses.

Our Glasgow Social Recovery Taskforce brought together partners to plan for the recovery of communities and to address some of the city’s long term social, health and economic challenges.

As we enter a new chapter in dealing with COVID, the SNP in Glasgow will be putting the focus on recovery for our public services, our economy and our communities.

Glasgow has suffered during the pandemic, but the lessons we have learned point the way to a better city for all of us.

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GLASGOW IN AN INDEPENDENT SCOTLAND

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Glasgow SNP will always place the interests of Glasgow and Glaswegians first – and we firmly believe that Glasgow’s interests will be best served in an independent Scotland.

Glasgow voted Yes to independence in 2014 and all the evidence today tells us that Glaswegians support Scotland’s right to choose in another referendum.

The Scottish Government has a democratic mandate to hold a referendum during the period of the next Council term when the Council will have the responsibility for running that vote.

Labour and the Tories have made it clear that they will do everything they can to block the right of Glaswegians and people across Scotland to make their choice freely and fairly. Unionist parties cannot be trusted to support the exercise of your democratic rights.

Glasgow is a great global city – but we are held back by Westminster. Many of our deep-seated social and economic challenges – generational unemployment, poor health and low life expectancy, and high levels of vacant land – can be traced back to the deliberate abandonment of the city by successive UK Governments from the 1970s onwards.

Glaswegian households are hit time and time again by Westminster policies and actions, with the current Tory Cost of Living Crisis set to send household bills spiralling being just the latest example.

And our city economy, businesses and workforce have been badly damaged by a disastrous Brexit that Glasgow didn’t vote for.

Independence will give Glasgow and Scotland the tools required to address our challenges, reap the rewards of our many assets and successes, rebuild a productive partnership with Europe, and take our rightful place as the social, economic and cultural heartbeat of a modern independent nation.

And so, at these local elections, Glasgow has a choice.

To move backwards with an anti-independence Labour party, supported by the Tories in a shady deal like they have in Aberdeen and North Lanarkshire Councils.

Or to move forward with an SNP team who will work every day to make Glasgow a better place to live and to make our city the pride of a successful, independent Scotland.

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ADDRESSING LABOUR'S HISTORIC PAY INJUSTICE AGAINST WOMEN

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IIn 2017 the SNP Council administration inherited one of the longest running and most deeply entrenched cases of gender-based pay discrimination in the UK. For over a decade, thousands of women working for Glasgow City Council had been disadvantaged by a pay system that gave extra benefits to male-dominated roles. The system – created by Labour in 2006 – treated vital women workers as second class.

Labour spent years ignoring the women’s pleas for justice, choosing instead to spend millions of pounds of public money defending their gender discrimination in the courts while the eventual bill for compensation mounted up.

Women workers were denied money they were entitled to, while the people of Glasgow are now paying the price – £30m a year and counting for the next 30 years, money that could be spent on vital public services. The ongoing task of undoing Labour’s years of pay discrimination is lengthy, complex and expensive, however the SNP is determined to finish what we have started: finalising compensation for the women affected; putting in place a new, non-discriminatory pay and grading system; and drawing a line under the huge costs incurred.

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What we've done Ensured that the Council finally acknowledge that thousands of women had been discriminated against and ended Labour’s years of defending the indefensible.

Negotiated and paid out a £500m compensation settlement for claimants In partnership with trade unions, begun the work of job evaluation to create a fair, gender-proofed pay system for all Council staff.

What we will do next Complete negotiations for the final tranche of compensation for claimants.

Complete the implementation of a fair pay system for Council staff by 2023 Ensure that Glasgow never again takes its women workers for granted.

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TACKLING THE TORIES’ COST OF LIVING CRISIS

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Households in Glasgow and across Scotland are facing a Cost of Living Crisis created in Westminster – with the Tories’ disastrous policies and callous cuts making it harder for people across the UK to heat their homes and put food on the table.

Research shows that a combination of Tory tax hikes for working people, rising inflation and soaring energy costs could leave the average family over £2,400 worse off. Household energy bills are rising due to Westminster failure to protect consumers – in stark contrast to the Tories’ claims in 2014 that a No vote to independence would see energy bills drop. And the Tories’ harmful Brexit is pushing up costs for businesses, raising prices and hitting all of us in the pocket.

The Tories’ response to this emergency? Hiking our taxes, with National Insurance contributions rising for most people by over 10% - and heaping yet more austerity on vulnerable households, with Universal Credit being cut by £20 a week.

The SNP, meanwhile, is standing up to the Tories and working to help households impacted by their Cost of Living Crisis.

Our SNP Scottish Government is spending almost £600million a year mitigating the brutal and immoral Tory policies, and creating new system of Scottish social security system delivering benefits such as the game-changing Scottish Child Payment.

Here in Glasgow, the SNP is investing Council resources in tackling the Cost of Living Crisis, with a new Cost of Living Crisis Support fund targeting support to hardpressed households. We will continue to seek to provide assistance, while keeping up our demands that those with the most substantial economic levers to help – at Westminster – step up and support those affected.

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What we've done Invested £1million in helping households with energy costs, which will support work being driven forward by organisations such as GHEAT who are supporting vulnerable Glaswegians.

Supported the embedding of Financial Inclusion Officers in schools to help families.

Allocated investment to provide targeted financial inclusion support for one parent families and citizens with disabilities.

Delivered the Scottish Government’s £150 payment to lower income households in receipt of Council Tax Reduction and the Council Tax discount for those on lower bands, with 73% of households in Scotland in receipt of financial support through their Council Tax bill or a direct payment.

What we will do next Invest in Glaswegian households’ spending power by rolling out 80,000 Glasgow Loves Local gift cards to people on lower incomes across the city – helping households with the cost of living and supporting local businesses.

Press the Tory Government to act on rising fuel bills and to match the Scottish Government’s commitment to uprate social security benefits by up to 6% this year.

Continue to prioritise support for Glasgow’s most vulnerable households, while delivering universal services that support people across the city like free early learning, free school meals and free personal care for the elderly.

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BUILDING AN ECONOMY THAT WORKS FOR GLASGOW

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Glasgow in 2022 is modern, dynamic city with a wealth of talent and resources – a centre of innovation, cutting-edge industries and academic excellence. We have one of Europe’s most highly skilled workforces, are home to a thriving creative sector and have become one of Europe’s leading inward investment destinations.

But too many Glaswegians still do not feel the benefit of our city’s economic success – inequalities, generational poverty and underemployment continue to hold Glasgow and our people back.

The SNP is focused on building an economy that works for everyone, putting wellbeing and inclusion at the heart of our efforts to support Glasgow’s economy.

And we are working to create an economy fit to meet the challenge of the climate emergency, building on our legacy of hosting COP 26 last year.

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A THRIVING ECONOMY

5.1

Glasgow SNP is bringing a partnership approach to dealing with business and key stakeholders in the city, working together to support innovation, investment and inclusive growth.

What we've done Brought record levels of jobs and investment into Glasgow, including 2,500 new jobs to the new Barclays campus beside the Clyde, the biggest inward investment to Scotland in 20 years.

Established the Glasgow Economic Recovery Group and the Glasgow Partnership for Economic Growth, bringing together public, private, third and academic sectors to steer Glasgow’s economic development.

Continued to successfully deliver the Glasgow City Region City Deal, which became the first in the UK to pass its first Gateway Review, unlocking a further £250m in investment.

Secured an £11m package of investment in 12 Clyde Mission projects, financially supporting Clydeside communities to become engines of sustainable and inclusive growth and support economic recovery from the impact of the pandemic.

Supported the establishment of the city’s pioneering Innovation Districts, centred in the City Centre, West End and Govan.

Turned Glasgow into a major centre for the film and television industry, bringing a Channel 4 hub to the city, creating Scotland’s biggest purposebuilt studio space in Kelvin Hall, and attracting more productions than ever before, including the first ever major Hollywood movie to be filmed entirely in Glasgow.

Facilitated massive investment in digital connectivity in the city, with Glasgow’s full fibre network growing from 300km to more than 5,000km, and the city leading the UK for 5G speeds.

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Supported small enterprises and organisations in the social economy sector to find premises in parts of the city that need a stronger business base through the Space for Growth initiatives.

Mobilised the city’s business support functions to respond to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, paying out grant support of over £40m to businesses in the city.

What we will do next Work with the Scottish Government to deliver the Clyde Mission, a long-term plan that recognises the crucial role that the Clyde corridor plays in the Scottish economy, focused on transforming vacant and derelict land for new jobs and housing, and investing in communities along the Clyde to tackle poverty and inequality.

Work with funders, including the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) and UK Infrastructure Bank, to support mission-led patient capital investment to businesses, projects, and communities.

Continue to grow the number of Small and Medium Enterprises and microbusinesses, ensuring our business support services help support start-up and growth businesses.

Using Social Infrastructure Investment, develop a programme of support that enables growth in the most deprived areas of the city.

Working with key partners, develop an action plan that supports more Glasgow companies exporting goods and services and ensure businesses have access to the information that will help them navigate the impact of Brexit.

Work to expand Glasgow’s thriving tech sector, providing grants to access suitable accommodation for tech start-ups and supporting the establishment of a Tech-Scaler in Glasgow.

Ensure that the growth and success of Glasgow’s film and TV industry creates opportunities for Glaswegians, working with key sector stakeholders to maximise local economic benefit and employment pathways.

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A FAIRER ECONOMY

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We believe that Glasgow’s economy should work for all Glaswegians – and we’ve been working to reform the Council’s economic development activity to prioritise social justice and inclusion.

What we've done Undertaken an Employability Review to ensure employability services support those furthest from the labour market, and opened up the Glasgow Guarantee to support a wider range of Glaswegians into work.

Declared Glasgow a Fair Work City. We have: Embedded Fair Work into our business support services to encourage businesses to pay the real Living Wage.

Supported record numbers of Glasgow businesses to become accredited Living Wage employers.

Introduced Fair Work principles to our inward investment promotion, securing commitments to promote Fair Work and employ local people and those with disabilities from investors such as Barclays at their new Tradeston campus.

Established Glasgow’s first ever Social Enterprise Board, and delivered the first ever Social Enterprise Strategy.

Improved procurement policy to secure a range of contractual Community Benefits, and created a Community Benefit Supplier Recognition system to track their delivery.

Recognised the importance of care as a key sector of our economy, and progressed an In-Work Progression Pilot to support people working in the sector to gain new skills.

Increased the number of people working in childcare, a key sector for the city economy.

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What we will do next Develop and implement a Community Wealth Building Strategy for Glasgow, ensuring that economic benefits are felt locally in all of our communities.

Explore opportunities to reform city procurement policy to require that companies doing business with the Council pay the real Living Wage, and encourage other public and private sector organisations in Glasgow to do the same.

Further drive sustainable procurement to be a role model for climate action, local workforce development, fair and green consumption as well as community wealth building and circular use of resources.

Continue work to grow the number of social enterprises in Glasgow and mainstream this model within our economy, ensuring access to appropriate support and prioritising growth and capacity-building so they can compete with commercial enterprises.

Create a Community Benefits repository where local groups can tell us which community benefits they would like to see included in relevant contracts and explore the possibility of subcontracting the delivery of these to Social Enterprises and the third sector.

Engage with partners to improve access to employment for people with disabilities in Glasgow.

Focus dedicated support to grow the number of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic-led businesses in the city, and provide a dedicated resource to help increase the number of women entrepreneurs and women-led businesses.

Tackle the digital divide, with a continued focus on supporting digital inclusion. We will: Co-ordinate with public, private and third sectors to better share resources and target support to people and groups who need help accessing opportunities and services digitally.

Work with Housing Associations and other partners to enable access to affordable digital connectivity for vulnerable individuals.

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Work with City Building to complete the construction of a brand new stateof-the-art “Green Training College” in Springburn, which will help fulfil City Building’s aim to create 2,000 new craft apprentices over the next 30 years.

Explore the creation of a holding company to be used to purchase vacant units or businesses in distress, and support the transition to an employeeowned model and promote the presence of social enterprises and cooperatives on our high street.

Working with Credit Unions, develop a model to provide interest free loans that the Council can act as a guarantor for, allowing micro and small businesses to access funding through non-traditional means.

A GREENER ECONOMY

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As a birthplace of the first industrial revolution, Glasgow’s contribution to climate change has been substantial. In 2022, under the SNP’s leadership, Glasgow is at the global forefront of today’s transition to a greener, lower-carbon economy.

What we've done Launched the Glasgow Green Deal, our mission to transform Glasgow’s economy to meet the challenge of the climate emergency. Working with experts, stakeholders, governments and our communities we are developing an ambitious and constantly developing programme of actions and investment to support Glasgow’s transition to Net Zero Carbon by 2030.

Put responding to the climate emergency at the heart of Glasgow’s Economic Strategy.

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Overseen development of a Just Transition Skills Action Plan, ensuring our city’s schools, colleges and universities and employers are supporting young people into the green industries of the future, and helping people in later stages of their careers to transition to new roles.

Funded a Green Economy Unit, which will support the delivery of our ambitious work to transition to a Net Zero Economy by 2030.

What we will do next Deliver the Glasgow Green Deal and progress and secure funding for the transformational projects in Glasgow’s Greenprint for Investment, including: A comprehensive sustainable transport system for Glasgow – the Clyde Metro – to connect underserved communities and support access to jobs and opportunities for Glaswegians.

An M8 Green Infrastructure Cap to re-stitch the city centre to Anderston and the West End, providing reconfigured public realm and traffic management.

A large-scale, regional programme of Home Energy Retrofit, supporting decarbonised and more efficient home energy across the city region.

The Clyde Climate Forest – an ambitious plan to plant 18million trees across Glasgow City Region over the next decade.

Intensify our work to make Glasgow a Circular Economy City, working with key stakeholders like the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and Zero Waste Scotland, including establishing a new Circular Economy District to support people to access reuse and repair outlets easily.

Support more local reuse and repair hubs, creating jobs as well as reducing waste, and investigate with social enterprises and other stakeholders the potential for ‘library of things’ social enterprise models in community hubs as part of building the repair economy in Glasgow.

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Explore and implement new approaches to Green Financing to deliver transformational investment in a Net Zero future.

Support small businesses to undertake the transition to Net Zero by embedding a Green Business Support offer within the Council’s Economic Development activity.

Encourage Strathclyde Pension Fund to adopt a more strategic approach to investments to support the city’s Net Zero goals.

A VIBRANT CITY CENTRE

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Glasgow’s city centre is the beating heart of our city’s economy but has been particularly badly hit by COVID-19. The pandemic has accelerated existing trends around the decline in city centre retail and seen lower footfall as a result of a low residential density and the rise in Working From Home. The SNP is working to support recovery and create a vibrant, people-friendly city centre.

What we've done Established Glasgow’s City Centre Task Force, a partnership between the Council, government and the private sector to respond to the impact of the pandemic on our city centre economy.

Secured around £2.6m of targeted Scottish Government funding to support city centre recovery from the pandemic, with resources allocated to city centre marketing, tackling vacant units, support for businesses to operate outdoor areas and city centre deep cleaning.

Developed a City Centre Recovery Plan alongside Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and other key stakeholders to co-ordinate resources for a thriving city centre.

Launched the City Centre Living Strategy to double the residential population of the city centre, diversifying the range of uses in the city centre and increasing footfall to support the city centre economy.

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What we will do next Undertake a Strategic Review and masterplanning approach for Glasgow’s traditional shopping district, covering Sauchiehall Street, Buchanan Street and Argyle Street, to tackle vacant sites and revitalise our city centre streets.

Continue to support inward investment in development in the city centre, emphasising place-making and the need for sympathetic development, and make better use of powers such as Compulsory Purchase Orders to proactively encourage positive strategic development of key sites.

Deliver the transformational Avenues programme and create a “People First” Zone at the core of our city centre to create people-centred streets which encourage people to spend time in the city centre.

Complete the refurbishment of George Square, with public engagement embedded at every stage of the design process, to provide an enhanced “living room” for the city.

Explore and deliver new approaches to property repurposing, converting buildings from lower-demand existing uses to new uses such as residential accommodation.

Engage with the Scottish Government’s national City Centre Recovery Taskforce to identify new policy responses and make the case for investment in city centre recovery.

Continue to support our hospitality, culture and Night-Time Economy sectors, including the late-night transport sector, and relaunch our NightTime Economy Advisory Board.

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ADDRESSING THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY

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Addressing the climate emergency is not a new challenge, but it is one that becomes more urgent with every passing year. Glasgow has been reducing carbon emissions ahead of target for the last five years. But what is now needed is a significant acceleration and scaling up of that work, to achieve our target of Net Zero carbon by 2030. That’s a task that will require Glaswegians, businesses and Glasgow City Council to work together.

At its heart, our climate response is about creating a fairer, healthier city, as well as a greener one. Our climate actions will support households to have better access to renewable heat and energy, more locally sourced fresh food, and improved local green spaces for communities to enjoy. We can support more use of public transport by tackling the cost of fares and the reliability of services to areas that have not been well served in the past - so that the low carbon transport choice is also cost effective and convenient.

Our Glasgow Climate Plan sets out a clear path to Net Zero. The SNP are committed to delivering that, and improving lives as we do so.

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A NET ZERO GLASGOW

6.1

Glasgow has already made significant progress in carbon reduction – between 2006 and 2019 our citywide carbon dioxide emissions fell by 41%. But we know that in order to meet our ambitious 2030 targets, there is much work still to do, such as the decarbonisation of heating and transport, for example.

The SNP is working to embed the drive for Net Zero across everything the Council does, and we are working in partnership with key stakeholders from across the city to ensure that all of Glasgow comes with us on this crucial climate action journey.

What we've done Developed Glasgow’s ambitious Climate Plan, setting in motion our plans to become a Net Zero carbon city by 2030.

Relaunched the Sustainable Glasgow partnership to co-ordinate Glasgow’s efforts to reach Net Zero.

Built the case for a massive programme of home energy retrofit across the Glasgow City Region, to decarbonise heat and eradicate fuel poverty.

Shown city-level climate leadership, with Glasgow securing the UN-backed Global Green City Award.

Led by example with a new Fleet Strategy aiming for a zero emission fleet by 2030, and beginning that work with over 300 electric vehicles including our first electric refuse vehicle and 23 dual fuel hydrogen gritters.

Responded to our young people’s leadership on the climate emergency by employing a Sustainability Officer within Education to ensure our curriculum meets this global challenge.

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What we will do next Build on our COP 26 host city legacy to deepen relationships with other cities around the world who are facing the common challenge of the Climate Emergency.

Design and launch a wide-ranging public awareness campaign to ensure we bring all of Glasgow’s communities together on the journey to Net Zero.

Ensure an Annual Review of our Climate Plan, intensifying our work and raising our ambition at every available opportunity.

Secure investment and facilitate work with a view to bringing about Scotland’s largest ever district heating system in Glasgow.

Develop a Community Energy Strategy to make it simpler to establish community energy organisations to generate renewable energy, and bring income into their local areas.

Invest in more Council-owned renewable energy generation, including solar and wind energy.

Develop a programme for a ‘Climate Ready’ education estate, improving sustainability throughout our schools and nurseries.

Introduce more hydrogen vehicles to our fleet, and continue to transition to zero emission vehicles.

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A Green, Breathable and Biodiverse Glasgow 6.2 Clean air and quality greenspace are central to our vision for a greener Glasgow.

We know how valued our city’s parks and greenspaces are, and even more so throughout the pandemic. Glasgow’s green spaces help to keep Glaswegians healthy, but they are also crucial in protecting our natural environment, and promoting biodiversity. We will continue to enhance green spaces with additional tree planting, wildflower meadow creation and development of local nature reserves and continue to devolve investment decisions to local communities.

And the SNP are committed to Glasgow having the cleanest air possible, with an ambitious Low Emission Zone at the heart of our efforts to protect the health of all Glaswegians through better air.

What we've done Delivered Scotland’s first Low Emission Zone, which has progressively removed highly-polluting buses from Glasgow city centre.

Delivered improvements in Air Quality, with substantial progress across the city including in areas like Byres Road/Dumbarton Road and Parkhead Cross.

Established the Ecological Emergency Working Group to ensure our Climate Plan fully integrates biodiversity and nature protection.

Launched the city’s Local Biodiversity Action Plan with activity all across Glasgow.

Signed up as a supporter of the National Park City campaign to align Glasgow with the objectives of becoming a greener, wilder city.

Introduced a £3m Parks and Open Spaces Fund to deliver local green and open space improvements across the city, with moneys devolved to local communities to respond to their priorities.

Established Queens Park as Glasgow’s second Pollinator Park, investing in increased wildflower meadow, spring bulbs and tree planting.

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What we will do next Meet Scotland’s ambitious air quality objectives across the city with a new Air Quality Action Plan.

Fully implement the city centre Low Emission Zone and work with communities and stakeholders to consider future opportunities for expansion, and work with taxi operators to provide flexibility around LEZ enforcement as they transition to air quality compliance.

Protect and enhance biodiversity by increasing the number of designated Local Nature Reserves in the city in collaboration with communities.

Significantly increase the city’s planting of trees and wildflower meadows every year, with a new Forestry and Woodland Strategy to be developed, contributing to the target of 20% canopy cover across the Glasgow City Region.

Introduce an updated herbicide policy to continue to reduce our reliance on chemical weed killers.

Develop a Tree Replacement Policy, working to replace trees which are lost to damage or removal, and putting in place plans and advocating for resources to deal with the Ash Dieback disease affecting a growing number of trees.

Increase biodiversity within our city’s parks and Council-maintained green and open spaces, supporting wilding where appropriate and identifying opportunities for promoting nature-based activities.

Support new ‘pocket’ or ‘wee’ forests throughout the city, work with communities to identify opportunities for tree-planting, and support the delivery of the Clyde Climate Forest.

Develop a Council-run tree nursery so we can nurture the saplings we will then plant across the city.

Launch an updated Climate Ready Apprenticeship Scheme that equips our future workforce with the skills to protect our biodiversity.

Deliver our Food Growing Strategy, building more allotments and community gardens to increase access to growing and link with programmes like the city’s successful Food Pantries, and make better use of vacant and derelict land to support this agenda.

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TRANSPORT FOR GLASGOW

6.3

For the first time in over a decade, Glasgow has a new transport strategy and a clear direction. We have already seen significant progress towards prioritising sustainable forms of transport, which are good for our city’s health, air quality and carbon emissions. We recognise that for some journeys, car use will be essential, but that many others could be done more easily or efficiently by other means.

We have secured commitment from the Scottish Government for a new Clyde Metro.

And we’ve already secured improvements to the city’s bus fleet, priority bus corridors and commitments to tap and cap ticketing. Glasgow SNP will now work towards publicly owned and run bus services for the city as part of an integrated public transport network, and reform transport governance to overcome the legacy of a fragmented and deregulated public transport system left by Tory and Labour Governments and Councils in the past.

Walking, cycling and wheeling should be a safe and easily accessible choice for everyday, local journeys for all Glaswegians – and that means quality active travel infrastructure. We will look to capitalise on record SNP Scottish Government investment to deliver our City Cycle Network and improvements for walking and wheeling.

What we've done Secured Scottish Government support for our ambitious proposals for a Clyde Metro system of low-carbon, integrated public transport to connect Glasgow’s communities.

Brought bus providers to the table to drive improvement and modernisation, securing commitment to fare capping across the city bus network by next year and “tap and cap” integrated smart ticketing across the city’s multimodal transport network by 2024.

Put in place an ambitious new Glasgow Transport Strategy to help our citizens get about Glasgow.

Introduced School Car Free Zones enabling safer walking and cycling to schools and reducing traffic around them, with 51 now across Glasgow.

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Overseen the rollout of public Electric Vehicle charging, with 268 public charge points now across Glasgow and funding secured for a further 164 this year.

Developed a comprehensive Active Travel Strategy to underpin our efforts to make Glasgow’s streets as inclusive, accessible and enjoyable as possible for walking, wheeling and cycling.

Delivered the first of the transformational city centre Avenues, which will rebalance our city centre streets away from private cars and towards people, at Sauchiehall St. Secured tens of millions of pounds for walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure (with the majority of Council transport spend currently supporting active travel), progressing vital pieces of infrastructure like the South City Way, Garscube Road and the East City Way, and building 50km of new cycle infrastructure in just the past 18 months.

Responded to the COVID and climate emergencies by implementing the Spaces for People programme, including new cycle routes, improved pedestrian infrastructure and reclaimed spaces like a car-free Kelvin Way. Expanded the Nextbike scheme, introducing Ebikes to the scheme, and delivered the secure on-street cycle storage pilot programme.

What we will do next Work towards publicly owned and run bus services for Glasgow, utilising new powers from the Scottish Government for municipal services and franchising.

Engage with the Scottish Government and Network Rail to ensure that the renationalised ScotRail service serves the needs of Glasgow’s communities.

Advocate for better Subway services and extended opening hours to serve the Night-Time Economy, including on Sundays.

Work with partners to reform transport governance, using the development of the Clyde Metro as an opportunity to create a fully integrated public transport system and to review the management and operation of the Subway, and exploring options to replace SPT with a new and more empowered structure aligned to the Glasgow City Region.

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Continue to work to secure more affordable bus fares and more frequent services, including in parts of the city which have been underserved by bus providers, and use existing structures now and frameworks such as a Bus Service Improvement Partnership to maximise access to investment for our bus network.

Work with partners to ensure the implementation of the Scottish Government’s commitment to free bus travel for under-22s.

Engage with the Scottish Government and Transport Scotland to progress our plans for a green cap over the M8 at Charing Cross, and to explore options to further reduce the impact of the M8 on the city centre.

Undertake an evidence-based review and develop a business case for consideration on Workplace Parking Licensing, with any potential revenues to be invested fully in sustainable transport projects within the city, and review options around road user charging and at-city-boundary congestion charging models.

Work with the Scottish Government and the taxi trade to address issues facing the sector.

Continue to expand provision of public Electric Vehicle charging.

Continue to deliver on our commitment to a 20mph citywide speed limit, and design streets that naturally reduce speeding.

Consult early in next the Council term on the wide-ranging City Centre Transformation Plan, including the proposed People First Zone in a core of the city centre to prioritise pedestrians and limit non-essential private vehicle access.

Expand our school streets programme, so every primary and secondary that is suitable for a car free zone will get one, and every other school will have measures implemented to improve the safety of the journey to school.

Secure transformational Scottish Government funding to design and deliver our planned 270km City Cycle Network by 2030, providing safe cycle lanes in every corner of the city that are accessible and comfortable to use for all ages and abilities.

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Develop, secure funding for and implement local infrastructure changes in line with a Liveable Neighbourhoods approach for every single community by 2030 so that our local streets are safe and pleasant for everyone to walk, wheel, cycle, play and spend time in.

Embed accessibility and fairness in all our transport projects, including via the establishment of an Accessible Design Forum, so that Glasgow becomes progressively easier to navigate for everyone, whatever their mobility needs.

Invest in pedestrian crossings to bring them up to fully accessible standards.

Extend cycle storage across the city, including the rollout of a further 360 OnStreet Cycle Parking units over the next 3 years.

Introduce new Nextbike stations across Glasgow, making the scheme accessible to as many residents as possible through location and type of cycles available.

Address pavement parking so that everyone can safely walk and wheel.

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BUILDING AND IMPROVING GLASGOW’S NEIGHBOURHOODS

7

Glasgow’s neighbourhoods are the building blocks of our city – they are the places we live and call home. The SNP knows that supporting and building communities means making sure everybody has a decent home to live in and a sense of place that binds local people together.

With investment from the SNP Scottish Government, we are building 5,500 social and affordable homes over the course of this Council term – with a real focus on ensuring new housing of the highest quality such as award-winning schemes at Anderston and Laurieston. Neighbourhoods like these have been transformed by a mix of social, affordable and private housing with a variety of tenures that supports the kind of mixed, balanced communities we strive to create.

And we are creating brand new neighbourhoods in transformational regeneration projects across the city – a new urban district at Sighthill, connected by a new bridge to the city centre, has been borne out of investment in the UK’s largest regeneration project outside London. This kind of transformation is already in the works for other areas across Glasgow, with massive investment in building neighbourhoods from Hamiltonhill to Pollokshaws.

Improving our neighbourhoods also means ensuring the smooth running of key neighbourhood services. Services such as cleansing and refuse collection have seen significant disruption at various points in recent years, with the impact of an unprecedented global pandemic on our Council workforce via self-isolation and absence posing significant challenges to service delivery. As we enter a new phase of recovery from the pandemic, the SNP is focused on supporting our services to continue to improve – and we are investing in modernising services with new technology, renewed depots and upgraded fleet. Meanwhile we will work to expand options for recycling and invest in neighbourhood infrastructure like roads, pavements and lighting.

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CREATING HOMES FOR GLASGOW

7.1

We are proud of the role that the SNP has played to increase the number of affordable homes across our city, with record SNP Government investment providing thousands of new homes since 2017. A re-elected SNP Council will continue that investment in our people and communities.

What we've done Invested over £470m in building 5,500 social and affordable homes across Glasgow over the course of this Council term.

Developed the “Glasgow Standard” to secure the highest standards of housing and meeting changing family needs: ensuring wheelchair adaptable housing, energy efficiency, better storage and access to open space.

Established a Tenant-Led Housing Commission to explore issues within the city’s Private Rented Sector.

Brought over 600 empty homes back into use across Glasgow and delivered the Govanhill Acquisition & Repair Programme to improve housing conditions in this community.

What we will do next Deliver around 6,500 new affordable homes for the city using a record £480m of Scottish Government funding.

Build on our relationship with City Building to commission new-build housing in the city, and to create new City Building Climate Apprenticeships to advance the decarbonization agenda through retrofitting.

As part of the forthcoming review of city planning policy with the new City Development Plan, strengthen policy to ensure a proportion of affordable housing in new developments, creating vibrant, sustainable mixed communities.

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Review planning and housing policy to better support the building of Net zero/Passive housing development and the building of large family housing/ accessible housing.

Expand our Empty Homes work, making more proactive use of Compulsory Purchase Orders where residential buildings have been neglected and advocating for additional powers to deal with this issue.

Continue to invest in Glasgow’s historic pre-1919 housing stock, working to secure funding and work with owners to address historic repair issues.

Work with the Scottish Government to ensure that their commitment to a national system of rent controls can be practicably and quickly delivered within the city, with particular focus on issues of rent inflation in the private sector, and work with partners to ensure continued affordability in the social rented sector.

Make use of new powers being proposed by Scottish Government to ensure high quality protections and rights for tenants in the Private Rented Sector.

PLANNING FOR GLASGOW

7.2

The SNP are working to reform planning policy in Glasgow, ensuring that we respond to emerging priorities and supporting key agendas like climate action and the development of 20-minute neighbourhoods. We will make full use of the opportunities arising from the creation of the new City Development Plan and continue to develop planning responses to issues of concern to communities like Short Term Lets and private Purpose Built Student Accommodation.

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What we've done Recruited a City Urbanist to work across the Council family and design community to ensure a central focus on Placemaking in city projects and strategies, and made use of the Glasgow Urban Design Panel to drive quality design standards for proposed developments at pre-application stage.

Established the Place Commission, an independent initiative to explore how we can design places to enhance liveability.

Further refined the Glasgow Urban 3D Model, supporting the visualization of proposed developments to improve relationships with the wider cityscape.

Introduced new Planning guidance to provide a range of safeguards for local communities against the over-concentration of purpose-built student accommodation, including exclusion zones in South Partick, Townhead and Yorkhill.

Reformed Planning Local Review processes to ensure that developments rejected by planning officers which are appealed receive a greater degree of scrutiny from Planning Committee members.

What we will do next Progress the new City Development Plan, the comprehensive statement of city planning policy against which planning proposals are assessed, in consultation and collaboration with communities and stakeholders.

Ensure that planning policy adequately meets the challenge of the climate emergency. We will: Introduce a presumption in favour of refurbishment and retrofitting rather than demolition of existing buildings.

Bring forward supplementary planning guidance to ensure climate, air quality and congestion impacts can be adequately taken into account in determining planning applications for traffic-intensive developments such as drive-through restaurants.

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Continue to make progress on reducing Vacant and Derelict Land, prioritising brownfield sites for development and ensuring protections for greenfield and Green Belt land.

Introduce a new licensing scheme for Short Term Lets and declare a planning Short Term Let Control Area to cover the city.

Develop and review planning policy to deal with development models such as co-living, Build to Rent and purpose-built student accommodations with a view to ensuring standards and supporting the maintenance of balanced communities with a variety of tenures.

Increase our focus on Digital Masterplanning, to ensure that access to digital connectivity is considered and advanced throughout the planning process.

Develop a Digital Twin simulation of the city to support planning and climate impact modelling.

Improve transparency and accessibility within our planning system, consistent with the requirements of legislation, including: An upgrade of the Council’s online planning portal.

A review of neighbour notification processes.

Explore options to mainstream the Planning Hearing model to allow objectors and applicants to be heard at planning committee on more contentious planning matters.

Refine Tall Buildings planning guidance to ensure that such developments are properly defined within planning policy and are reserved to suitable locations and contexts.

Further develop planning policy to provide stronger requirements for amenity and play spaces in residential development, including the city centre.

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REGENERATION FOR GLASGOW

7.3

Glasgow is a city which has been transformed over the last few decades – and we are driving forward work to create communities, facilities, and services of the highest standard. We will continue to support regeneration work with our partners, creating genuinely mixed and sustainable communities all across Glasgow.

And we will continue to secure investment and action to reinvigorate our city centre and our network of town centres, as well as prioritising and investing in our vital heritage estate.

What we've done Advanced transformative housing projects in Transformational Regeneration Areas across the city, including the development of a new urban neighbourhood at Sighthill, the UK’s largest regeneration project outside of London.

Begun detailed work on Property Repurposing, commissioning a strategy to identify opportunities and help remove barriers to repurposing vacant city centre property for alternative uses, and leading on this work nationally via the Scottish Cities Alliance.

Secured £11.2m in capital improvement for projects that have revitalised town centres throughout Glasgow, transforming local neighbourhoods via projects in wards across the city such as Canal, Calton and Govan.

Progressed the City Centre District Regeneration Frameworks to provide clear vision for the future of every part of our city centre.

Developed the first ever Heritage Assets Plan for Glasgow and launched our People Make Glasgow Communities programme.

Established our programme of Community Hubs to ensure local service provision in all parts of the city.

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What we will do next Continue to roll out local Community Hubs, bringing local services together into single accessible spaces and ensuring that facilities are fit for purpose and respond to growing demands in areas.

Continue the ongoing work in Glasgow’s Transformational Regeneration Areas, creating high quality mixed communities throughout the city.

Work with partners and communities to lever in funding to support our vital heritage estate, developing an investment strategy for the council’s built heritage and working towards solutions for Glasgow’s wider heritage assets, far too many of which were left to rot by successive previous Labour administrations.

We will continue to identify solutions for former Council assets closed and abandoned by the old Labour Council, just as we have delivered a new lease of life for St James’ Primary in the Calton which is undergoing renovation to become a new school.

We will work to secure investment for the People’s Palace & Winter Gardens, which was forced to close due to structural issues with the glasshouse which Labour failed to act on for years. We have already allocated £2.9m of Council resource to the restoration of this important city asset and are actively preparing funding bids to secure national investment.

We will build on our Heritage Assets Plan to work with partners to take a strategic approach to buildings outwith the Council’s control and advocate for additional powers to compel building owners to protect heritage buildings.

We will establish a new Built Heritage Commission for the city, drawing on independent expertise to help inform policy responses and advocate for powers and resources to protect the city’s built heritage.

Deliver place-based interventions such as by implementing and building on the actions of the High Street Area Strategy, bringing a problem-solving approach and identifying key responsible agencies to support the regeneration of city districts.

Intensify work to revitalise the Clyde riverfront through the delivery of the Clyde Mission, building on recent and planned development and delivering a “River Park” green corridor from Glasgow Green to Partick.

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MANAGING WASTE FOR GLASGOW

7.4

The past five years have seen significant investments in waste management. The city’s back courts have been equipped with new bins and increased recycling capacity. Street litter bins have all been replaced. Technology is being rolled out to ensure accurate real-time reporting of collections and help to identify any delays to service. With new vehicles on order and work underway to upgrade cleansing depots, there will be significant progress in the years ahead too.

We are working to raise Glasgow's historically low recycling rates, and waste is seen as a key part of our action to tackle climate change. We will continue to align ourselves with the Scottish Household Recycling Charter, to ensure recycling rates continue to move in the right direction, and fewer resources are wasted by being thrown away. And we understand the importance of local recycling points looking clean and modern to encourage recycling, so we will invest in these locations.

What we've done Developed our Resource and Recycling Strategy to make Glasgow a Zero Waste City by 2030.

Fully operationalised the Glasgow Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre (GRREC), to separate valuable recyclable material from waste and generate electricity to power 22,000 homes.

Committed to the Scottish Charter for Household Recycling, aligning our waste services with its objectives and with efforts to improve recycling rates.

Undertook a citywide Bin Replacement Programme, replacing thousands of back court metal dustbins with larger wheeled bins.

Modernised refuse collection routes to improve efficiency.

Removed commercial waste bins from streets across the city, with new policy requiring off-street containment to help keep our streets cleaner and more accessible.

Introduced an enhanced fly-tipping enforcement approach, employing new enforcement officers and Commercial Waste Officers to target fly-tipping hotspots and pursue those responsible.

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What we will do next Modernise outdated refuse and cleansing systems inherited from previous Labour administrations, with new technology in operations vehicles to better manage tasks, prevent missed collections and ensure responsiveness to issues where these arise.

Renew and upgrade the entire refuse collection fleet to modern, zero emission vehicles by 2030, providing more efficient vehicles for our workforce as well as cleaner air for our communities.

Invest £20million in creating new council depots or refurbishing current depots so that they are fit for purpose.

Continue to support recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 on our workforce and services.

Build on the Council’s communications campaigns with more direct-tohousehold communications to encourage appropriate waste disposal, and put in place new systems to improve communications to residents regarding services such as bin collections and other local events e.g. road closures.

Invest in new processing facilities to allow us to uplift and recycle a wider range of plastics, to reduce the amount of household waste going into green bins.

Tackle waste collection issues and improve access to recycling for tenements and flats, starting with an increased roll out of garden waste services, and work across Licensing and Cleansing functions to address and enforce against issues with back court waste in HMO properties.

Increase the number of neighbourhood recycling points and undertake a programme of improvement and maintenance so they are clean and pleasant to use.

Identify alternatives and introduce new infrastructure to mitigate the impact of on-street domestic refuse bins, where particular circumstances require these.

Review city centre recycling and waste infrastructure in line with anticipated increases in city centre residential population.

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Maintaining and Enhancing Our Neighbourhoods

7.5

The SNP is working to recover our neighbourhood services from the impact of the pandemic, and we are delivering significant investment in supporting our cleansing services.

Unlike other parties, we are putting our money where it matters. The Council’s cleansing budget is £17million higher than it was under Labour and in our most recent Council Budget we have delivered greater investment in neighbourhood services like cleansing than Labour and the Tories proposed in their own budget offering.

And while Glasgow is in the top 25% of roads condition in Scotland, we recognise the need to maintain and improve our roads and pavements. Our massive investment of £1million for each and every ward for neighbourhood infrastructure like roads, pavements and lighting will make a significant difference all across the city.

What we've done Worked to make our cleansing services more aligned to local needs and priorities, with the recruitment of new Neighbourhood Liaison CoOrdinators to respond to local issues and co-ordinate action across council services.

Developed a Litter Prevention Action Plan to prevent, deter and respond to litter in our communities, and rolled out new, larger on-street litter bins, including smart bins.

Delivered over £81million investment in maintaining and improving our roads and pavements, and over £31million in maintaining and upgrading street lighting.

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Invested an additional £1million per ward, totalling £23million, for infrastructure improvements such as road and pavement resurfacing, new pedestrian crossings, benches and street lighting, directed by local communities.

Begun to move the Council towards longer-term roads and pavements fixes, and away from sticking plaster type approaches.

What we will do next Deliver a new rolling programme of neighbourhood deep cleans every year to remove weeds and litter, and keep streets in good condition, in addition to our core cleansing services.

Ensure street cleansing services fully recover from the impact of the pandemic.

Deliver our Clean Glasgow programme, aligning services to local need while supporting communities to take action locally and promote behaviour change.

Continue to move the Council towards longer-term roads and pavements solutions, and away from short term fixes.

Identify new options for enforcement and quality control to timeously maintain public realm standards where contractors and utilities providers have undertaken works disrupting roads and pavements.

Invest in a programme of renewal and refurbishment of Council-owned play areas across Glasgow.

Renew and upgrade street lighting across Glasgow, and invest greater resources in LED street lighting and traffic signals to reduce energy use.

Work with partners to develop new approaches to graffiti in the city, which has been increasing since the pandemic despite the efforts of Council removal teams, with work to identify opportunities for Legal Walls and similar initiatives to provide alternative outlets.

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SUPPORTING RESILIENT AND EMPOWERED COMMUNITIES

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For far too long, Glaswegians have been held back by generational poverty and health and social inequalities. Over the past five years, Glasgow SNP has focused on: Promoting human rights and reducing inequalities across Glasgow.

Improving life chances and choices for all our citizens.

Embedding social justice in our policy making.

Empowering our people, giving them a stake, and a say, in what happens in their local communities and communities of interest.

While the city has been making progress to redirect funding to those communities who need it the most, the pandemic exposed existing inequalities facing many parts of our society, and exacerbated that experience for others.

Through our Social Recovery Taskforce, we took evidence on the impact of COVID on our communities – revealing a devastating impact all across Glasgow and particularly for disabled people, our BAME communities, and women.

Now, a Cost of Living Crisis caused by the Tories’ damaging policies at Westminster is seeing Glaswegian households bearing the brunt. We are taking action to respond to this situation and mitigate the impact for Glasgow’s families.

The SNP will always put tackling poverty and inequality at the heart of our efforts for Glasgow. And we will work to make sure everybody in Glasgow, regardless of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity, is supported and included in our city’s progress.

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Tackling Poverty and Promoting Financial Inclusion

8.1

When the United Nations appointed a Special Rapporteur to look at levels of extreme poverty in the UK, his research took him to Glasgow. His 2019 report on the Tories’ approach at Westminster was scathing - he said that the UK’s safety net had been deliberately removed and replaced with a harsh and uncaring ethos.

That experience is one that we see across the city, and the cost of living crisis is just the latest burden for Glasgow’s households. The SNP will continue to challenge Tories at Westminster to take this crisis seriously and replicate support put in place across Europe to curb fuel cost rises; and to match the Scottish Government in increasing all remaining social security benefits by the cost of inflation.

What we've done Pioneered a Holiday Food programme investing millions of pounds each year to ensure free food provision and activities for young people during the school holidays, benefitting tens of thousands of children across the city.

Invested in our £3m Cost of Living Crisis Support Fund, including £1m to support vulnerable Glaswegians with energy costs and targeted support for one parent families and those with disabilities.

Developed a new Financial Inclusion Strategy for Glasgow, building on our successful Universal Credit Hub pilots, and working to reduce poverty and end cycles of debt and dependency.

Worked with partners to support vulnerable Glaswegians through the city’s first ever Begging Strategy, including alternative giving and support services.

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What we will do next Invest £9million in our Glasgow Loves Local gift card scheme, with 80,000 gift cards worth £110 to be distributed this year to lower income families – giving Glaswegians some extra spending power and supporting high street businesses.

Continue to support Financial Inclusion Officers within Glasgow’s schools Continue to deliver the “Glasgow Helps” project which is helping to maximise household incomes and transforming the assistance we are able to provide to citizens.

Undertake a full review of the Poverty Leadership Panel to ensure that it is properly addressing the issues that our citizens are facing today.

Continue to lobby the UK Government to support our desire to run a Universal Basic Income pilot in the city, with Glasgow well placed to deliver such a programme.

Continue to administer the vital Scottish Welfare Fund and key programmes of assistance such as school clothing grants.

ADVANCING COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT

8.2

Empowering our communities is at the heart of the SNP’s agenda for Glasgow. We believe that decisions about our communities and public services are best driven by local decision-making in partnership with local people.

Under the SNP, Glasgow City Council has invested more in local community planning structures, increasing grants funding available to local communities and supporting genuine partnership working.

And we have made significant progress in advancing the participatory budgeting agenda, where local communities are empowered to direct spending on local priorities – including with our investment of £1million in each and every Council ward to be invested in local neighbourhood infrastructure priorities.

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What we've done Provided £1 million pounds per ward for communities to spend on their priorities for local infrastructure improvements.

Increased spending to Area Partnerships - including £3m for a new Parks and Open Spaces Fund – and allocated this funding based on SIMD data so neighbourhoods with greater need get more money.

Created a Community Empowerment and Equalities department within the Council to drive forward our Community Empowerment agenda.

Overhauled the outdated Integrated Grants Fund, ending Labour’s closeddoors approach by opening it up to new applicants and putting in place multi-year funding – the Glasgow Communities Fund now provides over £20million of funding each year to projects aimed at tackling poverty and reducing inequalities.

Piloted different approaches to participatory budgeting, shifting how we redirect resources to communities for them to have more control over their local priorities.

Supported Community Councils, including a digital support package to provide equipment and training to ensure Community Councils can still meet virtually and widen their memberships.

Improved our engagement with communities and held our first local Citizen’s Panels and a citywide Citizen’s Climate Assembly.

What we will do next Roll-out a new model of Area Partnerships, our ward-based community planning structures, to ensure they are more representative of local communities.

Establish local community funding panels to support the further devolution of more funding decisions to local communities.

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Implement recommendations following the review of the Glasgow Communities Fund.

Embed the findings of the third sector workstream of the Social Recovery Task Force to improve working between the third sector, Council and Community Planning Partnership and overhaul these structures to make them fit for purpose.

Review and redesign our community and citizen engagement so we can better reflect views of people with lived experience, and create an integrated digital platform for citizen engagement.

PEOPLE MAKE GLASGOW COMMUNITIES

8.3

The SNP believes in Glasgow’s communities – and we are committed to empowering them and providing the means for our communities to maximise the potential of their neighbourhoods. That includes supporting organisations already delivering imaginative and dynamic services shaped by and for communities to operate venues and facilities in their areas.

The People Make Glasgow Communities (PMGC) programme has been designed to really push this forward. Launched in 2021, it follows on from successful pilots where groups with solid track records in sport, community and youth work have successfully taken control of local facilities.

Glasgow has a strong and vibrant third and voluntary sector. Working closer together we know we can deliver better projects, services and results for communities. This isn’t a one size fits all approach. Some organisations will want to progress to a full Community Asset Transfer, taking ownership of a venue or facility. Others will work to secure long-term leases or licences, whilst others may simply propose fresh and innovative approaches to how they work with local people.

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We know that the best services are those that meet the needs of local people – and recognise that those needs can differ from street to street. So, we trust our communities and organisations with the means to drive forward the recovery and renewal of their neighbourhoods.

The People Make Glasgow Communities programme has already had early successes with work progressing towards community control for venues such as Langside Halls and Molendinar Community Hall, and our successful Community Activation pilots for football pitches across the city. The SNP, if re-elected, will further develop this programme of genuine partnership with our communities.

PROMOTING EQUALITIES AND HUMAN RIGHTS

8.4

Across everything we do, we will embed a human rights approach, recognising that not everyone requires the same type of support and that some communities need their services delivered in different ways.

Glasgow as a city and a Council must continue to tackle racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and misogyny in any form. There is a responsibility on us all to identify and dismantle the barriers of structural prejudice and discrimination that exist in our society and institutions.

What we've done Drawn up our City Charter, setting out Glasgow’s commitment to upholding, protecting and promoting human rights including treating people with dignity, fairness, equality and respect.

Made progress in implementing equality impact assessments for all policy and budget decisions, including the Fairer Scotland Duty.

Created a BAME taskforce with membership from a range of third sector organisations that work with BAME communities, with initial focuses on employability and democratic engagement, and hosted targeted jobs fairs to attract candidates from BAME communities.

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Formally adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism.

Provided, for the first time, additional funding and support for staff equalities networks including the BME Employees Staff Network and the LGBT staff network Prism.

Appointed an equalities champion in each Council department to embed an equalities focus throughout the Council family.

Established Glasgow’s Black Voluntary Sector network.

Hosted official Black History Month events in City Chambers for the first time.

Funded the progression of the LGBT charter in our schools and provided leadership to introduce LGBT Inclusive Education.

Hosted events celebrating LGBT History Month.

Supported Glasgow Centre for Independent Living-delivered disability etiquette awareness sessions for staff in Social Work Services.

Worked with Glasgow Disability Alliance, as a recognised Disabled Peoples Organisation, to ensure the involvement of disabled people, especially women, in the response to COVID-19 and that their voices are heard.

Developed a strategic approach to improving citywide employability opportunities for people with disabilities by forging a formal partnership between our Economic Development and the Scottish Union of Supported Employment.

Funded the APT Public Social Partnership to design and deliver unique programmes that will enhance each employer’s engagement with disabled people and/or those with long-term health issues.

What we will do next Engage and co-design with council services, third sector groups, and human rights organisations to embed a human rights approach across all our policy and service design, and in the wider recovery and renewal from the pandemic.

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Establish a Human Rights and Equalities reference group, chaired by a senior councillor, with representation from protected characteristics groups and lived experience to co-design participation in service design and policy making.

Act on Council-commissioned research into the city’s historic links to slavery, working in partnership with Dr Stephen Mullen and Glasgow University, and increasing understanding of the city’s historic role with the transatlantic slave trade and industries which exploited enslaved people.

Support the development of anti-racism education in our schools.

Formally adopt the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims’ definition of Islamophobia.

Work to explore the feasibility of a national museum dedicated to illuminating colonialism, imperialism and slavery based in Glasgow.

Develop greater involvement of equalities groups in Community Planning Partnerships.

Work in partnership with equalities organisations to access funding and develop targeted community projects to promote civic participation, inclusion and diversity across the public sector and support of the council’s strategic priorities on equalities.

Progress the recommendations from the Social Recovery Taskforce Disability Workstream report “Transforming participation for disabled people in Glasgow beyond Covid-19”, including a commitment to Disability Equality training for councillors and Community Planning Partnership leads.

Create an Accessible Design Forum to help make our city streets better to navigate for people with disabilities.

Continue to engage with LGBT organisations on aspirations for an LGBT community social space in the city.

Build on our Age Friendly Glasgow work to continue to improve structures and services to meet older people’s needs and for all citizens as they age.

Appoint an Older People’s Champion to highlight the issues impacting the lives of Glasgow’s growing older population, which include loneliness and social isolation, digital exclusion, housing, and health and care.

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Ensure that older people’s voices are heard, their views are represented in Glasgow and their needs are considered in the planning and delivery of policies and services to empower them to play an active part in local decision-making.

Develop a cross-cutting Children’s City Strategy including actions to make the city centre more appealing for families, implement the planned upgrade of every Council-owned play area, deliver a year round programme of Street Play events, and make streets safer for active travel and outdoor play.

Promoting Gender Equality and Tackling Violence Against Women

8.5

The recent ground-breaking report from Baroness Helena Kennedy’s Working Group on Misogyny identified that Misogyny is a Human Rights Issue. We must recognise and challenge misogynistic attitudes and behaviour in our workplaces and schools. The culture of misogyny, and sexist stereotyping on children and young people, both female and male, can be significant in hindering personal and social development.

The SNP is focused on identifying and making use of the social, economic and democratic levers we need to pursue gender equality and tackle sexism and misogyny.

We know as a result of the pandemic, women have been disproportionately impacted socially and economically – and that makes pursuing an equal Glasgow for women and girls all the more pressing a priority.

Violence against women and girls in any form cannot be tolerated in our society.

Through the world-leading Scottish legislation and policy context, including the Domestic Abuse Act and Equally Safe, we have the frameworks to tackle this issue.

In Glasgow, the long-standing Violence Against Women’s partnership, alongside our frontline women’s services continue to work hard to address and challenge this. No woman or girl should feel unsafe in any part of their life - we know we must do more.

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What we've done Rolled out free sanitary provision in our schools and community venues, achieved by working in partnership with school girls and community organisations.

Chaired the multi-agency Glasgow Violence Against Women Partnership which continues to work to prevent and eradicate all forms of violence against women.

Produced the Glasgow Violence Against Women Covid Recovery Strategy and provided funding to organisations to deal with pandemic related costs.

Established the Financially Included project to identify and support women with current or historical experiences of financial abuse.

Supported Glasgow Caledonian University’s Erase the Grey campaign and joined the Fearless Glasgow partnership.

Reviewed the effectiveness of the Council’s sexual harassment policy, leading to the update of our Bullying and Harassment policy and a new action plan.

What we will do next Identify the social and economic levers to address current inequalities experienced by women as a result of pandemic.

Ensure equality impact assessments embed gender equality into strategy and decision-making and incorporate women’s lived experience into public planning, social and economic policy.

Review the Violence Against Women’s partnership to embed a VAW focus across the Council’s leadership.

Develop a new strategic plan for Glasgow City HSCP to improve access to VAW services.

Introduce mandatory training on violence against women and girls for all elected members.

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Develop targeted campaigns and communications to raise awareness of misogyny, and to end sexual harassment within our schools.

Respond to the Light the Way campaign by reviewing options around the introduction of parks lighting, and explore ways to improve the design of communities and places, such as Space Safety Audits, to make women not just feel safer, but be safer.

Ensure that Developing the Young Workforce addresses misogyny, sexism and gendered barriers within employment.

Observe UN International Day of the Girl Child annually on 11th October, celebrate the achievements of Glasgow’s young women and support them in their personal development to be our future leaders.

A CITY OF ASYLUM AND REFUGE

8.6

Glasgow has long been a welcoming city for those seeking asylum and refuge. We have seen from the protests at Kenmure Street and against the Serco lock changes, that Glasgow’s citizens and communities stand up for refugees.

Immigration remains a reserved issue, and whilst the SNP do all they can within their limited powers, the UK migration system remains broken. Along with our SNP MPs and MSPs, SNP councillors have continually challenged the Home Office for a fair, inclusive and dignified system that puts the health and wellbeing of those seeking asylum in our city at its heart.

What we've done Challenged the current system of asylum accommodation in the city, opposing the use of hotel accommodation and working to highlight alternative accommodation.

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Fought against the insidious No Recourse to Public Funds legislation introduced by Labour and perpetuated by the Tories which makes it illegal for the Council to provide support to those at risk of destitution because of Home Office delays or decisions.

Called for sustainable and fair funding frameworks for Asylum Dispersal, standing alongside the Scottish Government and COSLA against the inadequacy of current funding and the impact on local authorities.

Lobbied for changes to UK legislation for the right to work and study for those awaiting a decision for longer than 6 months.

Supported calls for amnesty for those registered in the asylum system for more than 3 years without a final decision.

Sought a review of the current private asylum contracts and called on the UK Government to allow local authorities to bid and provide accommodation in place of private companies.

Stood up for Afghan and Syrian refugees, leading on calls for the UK Government to step up in the resettlement scheme.

Made a clear statement of support for Ukrainian refugees fleeing war.

What we will do next Provide support to Ukrainian refugees fleeing war and engage with the Government’s sponsorship scheme.

Continue to argue for publication of the review into the tragic Park Inn Incident so we can learn lessons from it.

Stand up to Tory ideology that demonises asylum seekers and refugees and continue to oppose the Nationality and Borders Bill.

Work with the Scottish Government to become an official Scottish City of Refuge.

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PROMOTING HEALTH AND WELLBEING

9

In 2017 Glasgow was at the start of the health and social care integration journey. Five years later we can say that integration has worked in the city, with a transformational shift in how services and organisations work together to support our citizens, led by our Health and Social Care Partnership.

The past two years have stretched our health and social care staff, and our many thousands of unpaid family carers, in a way that would have been unimaginable before the pandemic. We pay tribute to the heroism of our staff and unpaid carers and recognise the trauma many have experienced.

The SNP in Glasgow fully supports the aim of the Scottish Government’s proposed National Care Service to achieve consistently excellent services which empower service users, value and reward the workforce, and enable a human rights approach. We will ensure the lived experience of those who rely on social care, and those who provide unpaid care, is further embedded in the system. Collaborative, rather than competitive, ways of providing services will be prioritised where possible.

Early intervention, prevention and an approach which empowers service users, unpaid carers and frontline staff to be partners in care will transform services. The SNP in Glasgow is committed to a system which replaces crisis with prevention, burden with investment, competition with collaboration and variation with equity and fairness. Social care should be a vehicle to a better life, empowering people to make the most of their own capabilities, rather than simply a service delivered to people.

We will work to ensure that strategic decision-making as well as delivery of social care support remains local, integral to community planning, and with the views of service users and carers at its centre.

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CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

9.1

We have seen real progress for children and families in the city, shifting the balance of care towards more family and community-based support to reduce the number reaching crisis point through a comprehensive family support strategy.

What we've done Supported work to reduce by almost half the number of children and young people entering residential or foster care settings since the launch of integration by prioritising investment in family support, with a 76% reduction in the number of looked after Glasgow children in out-of-authority placements Supported continued newbuild developments and refurbishments in children’s residential services.

Supported an increase in the number of young people receiving an aftercare service entering employment, education or training from a baseline of 67% to 80%.

Fully committed to implementing “The Promise” to care-experienced young people, so that every child in Glasgow can grow up loved, safe and respected and able to realise their full potential.

What we will do next Continue to support investment in comprehensive family support services, family group decision making and early intervention and prevention.

Continue to prioritise tackling child poverty.

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Support co-designed services and pathways for fast and appropriate access to mental health and emotional support for children and young people and improvements in community and family supports for neurodiverse young people.

Support an integrated multi- agency approach to help families from prebirth, pregnancy, birth and beyond.

Prioritise digital inclusion for children and young people.

SERVICES FOR ADULTS AND OLDER PEOPLE

9.2

Over the past five we have prioritised shifting the balance of care from in-patient, residential and building-based services to community-based alternatives. Numbers of people living in supported living services have increased by almost 350%, while a recovery model of care has supported greater self-determination and choice.

Our Maximising Independence approach supports people who wish it to remain living safely at home independently for as long as they can with the right support in place for them and their families/carers. This means a greater focus on early intervention and prevention and empowering people to live fulfilling lives and have a greater level of choice and control over how their care is provided.

People have told us they want to have more say over decisions that affect them rather than simply “being assessed”. The Maximising Independence approach is based on seeing service providers, service users and family carers as partners in care. This means changing how we design, commission and deliver services to support service users and their families. It also means making better use of community assets to meet people’s needs, helping to tackle loneliness and isolation.

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What we've done Supported service transformations to prioritise early intervention and prevention.

Supported greater self-determination and choice for service users.

Improved support and services for unpaid carers.

Continued shifting the balance of care from institutional to community settings, enabling independent living for longer.

Supported increased use of technology enabled care.

Supported the delivery of free personal care for under 65s.

Supported the work of community connecters and links workers to tackle poverty.

Brought vital homecare services back in house by transferring this crucial function from the former ALEO Cordia into the core Council.

Supported the completion of newbuild care home and day care services for older people.

Supported the development of partnerships with third sector partners such as RSLs to help people remain at home for longer.

Supported continued innovation and help for people with dementia and their families.

What we will do next Make the case for local decision-making and delivery to remain at the heart of any forthcoming reforms to social care.

Support the SNP’s national commitment to abolish non-residential care charges.

Continue to improve support and advice for unpaid carers, recognising the devastating impact the pandemic has had on many families.

Continue to provide support across the Council to implement the Maximising Independence approach.

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Encourage and support the expansion of collaborative procurement processes (such as Glasgow’s groundbreaking alliancing model for purchased homelessness services) wherever possible.

Support advanced digital telecare applications to help people live independent lives for longer and expand opportunities to deliver services both remotely and in person to give people greater choice and control of their own care and support.

Prioritise anti-poverty policies and actions.

Maintain the current Council-provided home care service.

HOMELESSNESS SERVICES

9.3

In 2017, we inherited a homelessness service in crisis – with Glasgow City Council under the previous Labour administration having been censured by the Scottish Housing Regulator for failure to meet statutory targets.

An early action of our SNP administration was to host a summit on ending rough sleeping, bringing together partners across the city. Under our leadership, Glasgow played a key role in the national Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group and we have progressed its recommendations on ending rough sleeping and providing rapid rehousing to people experiencing homelessness.

What we've done Supported the transformation of homelessness services to lay the foundations for a system of rapid rehousing.

Established the groundbreaking Glasgow Alliance to End Homelessness, the first of its kind in the UK, which brings together a range of partners who are transforming purchased homelessness services to support those in need.

Implemented Housing First, making this the default route for those presenting as homeless with complex needs.

Reduced rough sleeping, achieving our "Vanguard City" target of a 75% reduction in city centre rough sleeping by the end of 2020.

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Supported the opening of the Simon Community’s Access Hub in partnership with Glasgow City Mission, Marie Trust and Turning Point Scotland to provide a range of services for people experiencing homelessness under one roof.

What we will do next Prioritise a Council-wide drive to prevent homelessness occurring, making best use of the data available to us.

Continue to drive whole system improvements to provide rapid rehousing for people who do experience homelessness.

End rough sleeping by continuing to put people with lived experience of homelessness and rough sleeping at the centre as equal partners in our Glasgow Alliance to End Homelessness.

TACKLING ADDICTIONS

9.4

Glasgow has a problematic relationship with alcohol and more than 13,000 problem drug users, double the national average. The Council plays a key role in Glasgow’s Alcohol and Drugs Partnership which is tasked with tackling drug and alcohol issues in the city and driving a recovery-oriented system of care. The ADP works closely with Glasgow’s Recovery Communities who are key partners in the development of services.

Services in Glasgow picked up on the increase in drug deaths in the city early, holding a citywide summit in April 2019 to develop a response. A national summit was then held in the city which fed into the national response to the drug deaths crisis.

Problem gambling is also a major issue in Glasgow and the Council has been working with partners in the NHS, Public Health Scotland and third sector partners to develop a comprehensive whole system strategy to prevent and reduce gambling harms experienced by people, families and communities in the city.

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What we've done Championed a public health approach to provide compassionate, nonjudgemental services for people with addictions, challenging stigma and supporting new services such as enhanced drug treatment.

Supported the development of innovative responses such as heroin-assisted treatment and a Safer Drug Consumption Facility.

Advocated for legislative change at the UK Government level to remove barriers being placed in the way of a more robust public health response to addictions.

Brought together partners in a citywide summit on gambling to identify actions.

What we will do next Continue to support local and national work to reduce drug deaths in the city, expand treatment options and support recovery.

Support better use of data and shared intelligence between partners to inform local services.

Introduce a Safe Drug Consumption Facility as soon as legal barriers are removed, reducing overdoses and the impact on communities of public injecting.

Recognising gambling harms as a public health issue, take a whole systems approach built on education, prevention and early intervention measures and work with stakeholders and people with lived experience to develop holistic policy responses.

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REDUCING HEALTH INEQUALITIES

9.5

Glasgow faces health challenges driven by poverty and inequality which are unique in scale in Scotland. Two fifths of our population live in Scotland’s most deprived areas. Twice as many Glasgow children live in income deprived areas as the national average. National funding does not properly recognise the scale and complexity of demand for services in Glasgow and we will continue to argue for increased national resources.

The pandemic has reinforced the devastating impact of inequality across our city.

Our recovery must be built on a renewed drive to tackle health inequalities. We are committed to prioritising resources for the areas of greatest need, with health promoting policies embedded across every area of the Council’s work.

What we've done Led a public health summit with a focus on health as an asset that brings social and economic benefits for individuals and communities, now established in our community planning partnership.

Developed a ten-year Glasgow City Food Plan to ensure tasty, healthy, affordable food is accessible to everyone, where local food enterprises are supported and celebrated, and where we produce, provide, purchase and consume food that is good for the planet, good for animal welfare, Instituted a Population Health focus in our economic development work, informing the development of key city strategies.

Made use of data and innovation to map health inequalities throughout the city, and established a Digital Health and Care workstream as part of the Digital Glasgow Programme.

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What we will do next Drive innovation and use predictive analytics to support prevention and early intervention.

Ensure a Council-wide compassionate response to support those affected by mental health issues, including our own staff and service users.

Accept and act on recommendations from the Glasgow Centre for Population Health report “Health In A Changing City Glasgow 2021”. These are already reflected in commitments elsewhere in this manifesto and will be prioritised by a re-elected SNP administration.

Enable a better understanding of the needs of people from minority ethnic groups through better use of data to plan equitable services.

Adopt measures of racial discrimination to assess the impact of racism on physical and mental health.

Improve access to safe, affordable housing.

Homelessness prevention policies to support people struggling financially with tenancies, using homelessness statistics to target prevention work where it is most needed.

Continue to reduce rough sleeping and time spent in temporary accommodation.

Embed Community Wealth Building in economic planning.

Include those with direct experience of poverty in decision-making.

Continue to increase capacity of childcare services, improving flexibility where we can.

Ensure affordable access to digital technology and access to digital skills for at risk families.

Harness and build on examples of solidarity and community cohesion arising from the pandemic, ensuring everyone is included.

Ensure a greater focus on gendered perspectives and lived experience when planning public spaces, transport systems, and services.

Deliver equitable access to greenspace in every community.

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Ensure an equitable geographic distribution of new facilities and infrastructure for active travel.

Better designed, safe and accessible cycle routes and paths; reduced speed limits on roads; and comprehensive safety awareness training for all road users.

Improve information on transport users and their equalities characteristics to enable a better understanding of transport inequalities, monitor increased investment in active travel and gain a better understanding of the risks associated with different modes of transport.

Accelerate progress on changing transport systems, including building active travel infrastructure, and on the repurposing of vacant and derelict land for more socially productive and sustainable purposes.

Increased investment in community-led groups and organisations, including the youth work sector, to support positive mental health and support people before they hit crisis point.

A range of local policies built upon the principles of social inclusion, poverty reduction and sustainability need to be enacted, including support for living wage employment, income maximisation initiatives, poverty-proofing policy, proportional targeting of services and investment, inclusive housing and regeneration strategies, improvements to the built and natural environment and accelerated investment in active and sustainable travel for all communities.

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GIVING OUR YOUNG PEOPLE THE BEST START

10

Education is the best route there is to ensuring that everyone has a fair start in life.

This starts with the very youngest children and is true all the way through to our school leavers. From being at the forefront of the expansion of free, universal childcare for three-, four- and many two-year olds, to driving record positive post-school destinations for our secondary pupils, the SNP in Glasgow is laser focused on improving the wellbeing and life chances of our children and young people.

No pupil should struggle to learn because of poverty. We know that some families are sacrificing essentials like heating, food and rent payments so that their children can participate fully at school - this is unacceptable. The barriers to education must be removed.

In the past 5 years we have pioneered Free School Meals, including lunch, breakfast and snack provision, for children in Glasgow which has been adopted as wider national policy. Our work to promote period dignity, developing policies and provision with female pupils, has also addressed poverty and stigma. We have invested in new nurseries, schools and Multi-Use Games Areas, and empowered pupils, parents and teachers in the design and delivery of the curriculum and wider education initiatives.

Our focus is on driving excellence in education. That means: Raising attainment and achievement for our young people Continuing to improve how we meet the learning and care needs of children before they go to school and as they move through school, including how we support their families and carers Continuing to improve how we meet the needs of all children and young people, particularly those with additional support needs Supporting our fantastic teachers and valued education workforce.

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DELIVERING FOR GLASGOW'S YOUNG PEOPLE

10.1

Glasgow’s young people have gone from strength to strength in recent years, securing record achievement and positive destinations. Their success is testament to every young person and the teachers, parents and care-givers who support them.

Where once Glasgow was written off by many as never being able to produce positive outcomes for its young people on a par with the rest of the country, today Glasgow is for the first time ever exceeding the national average on key measures like positive destinations. The SNP knows that giving our children the best start in life means providing a supportive learning environment from 3-18, driving positive outcomes for the future.

What we've done Supported a record number of young people into positive destinations, with 96.2% of school leavers achieving the best destinations ever, exceeding the national average for the first time.

Supported a record number of school leavers into Higher or Further Education – a record breaking 71.87%.

Worked to close the poverty-related attainment gap year on year, as compared to national figures, with rises in attainment outperforming Scotland as a whole when SIMD and poverty is taken into account.

Supported record numbers of children from BAME backgrounds to attain qualifications, with numbers of BAME pupils achieving five or more awards at SCQF level 6 rising by 8.1% to 26.9%.

Protected and maintained teacher numbers, even as other parties have proposed to cut them.

Delivered 1,140 hours of free, universal childcare every year for three, fourand all eligible two- year olds, becoming a leading council in implementing this transformational shift in early years education.

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Promoted Recovery, Resilience and Reconnection – parents told us we have “gone above and beyond” to support families during lockdown, taking a ‘whole family’ approach to children with ASL needs and other vulnerable children were prioritised and supported.

Invested £4.1million to support digital inclusion and education, enabling the purchase of thousands of devices and data packages, and rolled out the use of digital tablets to school children to support learning.

What we will do next Continue to improve attainment and positive destinations, building on the significant progress made since 2017.

Support our fantastic education staff to deliver on these objectives and continue to develop staff knowledge, skills and abilities by professional learning and qualifications as a cornerstone of organisational improvement and pupil attainment.

Nurture and invest in support for learning, mentoring and fostering positive relationships - all key to schools being positive, welcoming places.

Maintain the pace of new nursery provision and ensure primary capacity remains sufficient.

Identify further need and potential for increased capacity in our secondary schools.

Support skills development to ensure pathways to employment in green, digital, creative and other industries of the future.

NURTURING AND INCLUSIVE EDUCATION 10.2 Glasgow’s education system should be accessible to all young people. We want all children and young people to get the support that they need to reach their full potential.

Schools are communities of learning, where young people and staff should feel safe and secure. In areas where there are high levels of poverty, we know young people are more likely to have been exposed to adverse and stressful experiences. We also know this can have a long-lasting impact on their ability to learn and thrive.

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Our success in reducing exclusions and increasing attendance is combined with raising expectations for both pupils and staff. Pupils from the most deprived areas continue to perform above the national average across many measures. At senior phase, outcomes for young people have shown a very positive upward trend over the last five years, and overall, young people including care experienced children are leaving school with better qualifications that allow them to access better employment.

We have much more to do but we are in a much better place to equip our young people with the skills and attributes to be Glasgow’s citizens of the future.

We will continue to improve how we meet the needs of all children and young people and how we support their families and carers, particularly those with additional support needs. We will ensure that all our schools and nurseries are places in which children feel welcomed, nurtured and secure.

What we've done Maintained our leading Nurture provision with Nurture Groups providing targeted support for children requiring additional assistance, driving a positive impact on attainment, confidence and wellbeing and relationships.

Maintained English as an Additional Language provision to new Glaswegians ensuring integration opportunities, protecting this vital service in the face of the Tories’ proposals to cut it.

Led the way in extending Free School Meals to our school children, with Glasgow already providing universal FSM to pupils P1-P4, ahead of national rollout.

Supported families during lockdown and pandemic recovery, with our schools functioning as community hubs providing vital support and connection during these difficult times.

Progressed our Rights Respecting Schools work, established a BAME young person’s group to promote inclusion and equality and delivered anti-racist training co-designed with the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights.

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Worked to diversify the education workforce, increasing the number of BAME staff within our schools and creating an Education Service more reflective of contemporary Glasgow, with numbers of teaching and support staff from BAME backgrounds more than trebling since 2017.

Revamped the Glasgow City Parents Group and created a Glasgow Schools’ Young People’s Forum to empower and engage parents, and enabled parents to meet with senior education staff even during lockdown.

Empowered pupils to shape the Children’s Service Plan, the consultation on Blairvadach Residential Centre, a Framework for Children’s Rights and most recently, the Children’s Climate Charter.

Delivered Changing Places toilets in new-build schools.

Implemented the LGBT Youth Programme Charter in 13 secondary schools and 6 primary schools.

What we will do next Improve assessment of all children for Additional Support for Learning in the areas of dyslexia/ dyspraxia/ dyscalculia.

Deliver universal Free School Meals for all primary school children.

Work to achieve silver and gold Food for Life awards in school meals and promote healthy food and diet within the secondary curriculum.

In partnership with the Scottish Government, embed anti-racist education throughout our curriculum to promote race equality in our schools, and work to combat antisemitism and anti-Irish racism throughout education.

Continue to work with LGBT Youth Scotland to promote the LGBT Youth Programme Charter and with TIE to promote their national resources and programme for inclusive education.

Continue to deliver on period dignity in Glasgow’s schools and throughout other venues such as those managed by Glasgow Life.

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INVESTING IN OUR YOUNG PEOPLE

10.3

The SNP is committed to education for Glasgow. We have delivered a sustained programme of investment in our education estate and remain committed to providing high quality learning and teaching environments for the learners of the future as demonstrated by year on year improvement in attainment in our schools.

What we've done Invested millions of pounds in an expanded schools estate – including building the North Kelvinside Primary School, and delivering extensions to St Paul’s High School in Pollok and to Carntyne Primary School.

Delivered an ongoing programme of £30m investment in expanding early years provision to meet our commitment to 1,140 hours.

Expanded Gaelic-Medium education with a new Gaelic-Medium primary school in Govan, Bun-sgoil Ghàidhlig Bhaile a' Ghobhainn.

Delivered £3m of investment in primary sports pitches and multi-use games areas (MUGAs) in 40 sites across the city.

What we will do next Develop a Carbon Neutral Schools Investment Plan to help our education estate achieve Net Zero Carbon status in terms of both their condition and heating systems in order to meet the highest standards of energy efficiency.

Invest in school play and outdoor education, and continue to promote physical education and sports’ vital role in improving the health and wellbeing of the city’s children in and out of school.

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Continue to expand Gaelic Medium Education provision across the city at primary and secondary school levels, with a new Gaelic primary at St James’ in Calton and a relocation of the Gaelic Primary School at Berkeley St (BunSgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu) to allow for the expansion of the secondary school.

Create a new or expanded primary school to serve the city centre and Gorbals, meeting anticipated population growth, and review options for secondary provision in the wider area.

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FINANCE FOR GLASGOW

11

As Scotland’s only true metropolitan region, we believe there is a strong case for Glasgow to receive additional funding from the Scottish Government that recognises our role as the powerhouse of Scotland’s economy.

At present, the funding formula for local government in Scotland does not fully recognise the additional costs placed on cities to deliver some services. Whilst deprivation has been added to how some funding is allocated, there is no recognition of the additional costs to cities to provide services which are used more often but which aren’t based on deprivation.

Additionally, many of Glasgow’s assets which are paid for by the city, including our museums, culture and sporting venues are used by people across the country. They are national assets and we will continue to argue for more funding to come to Glasgow to pay for these national services.

The case for other financial powers for local government is also clear. While we welcome the national conversation on issues like Workplace Parking Levy and a Transient Visitor Levy there are other powers that would benefit Glasgow such as a Land Value Tax. We agree that Council Tax should be reformed to make it fairer and will watch with interest what comes out of the Citizen’s Assembly on this issue that the Scottish Government are committed to holding.

Paying the costs of Labour’s pay discrimination has the biggest impact on the city budget. It is currently £30 million each year and that figure that will grow as we settle the final bill. This is money that is due to these women for work they have done, and they must be compensated for it. It remains a reminder of the scale of the discrimination Labour put in place and perpetuated and is money that cannot be spent on other services the city needs.

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What we've done Engaged constructively with the Scottish Government to make the case for Glasgow, seeking greater resources and solutions to funding challenges.

Worked to improve local involvement and participation in deciding the city’s priorities for setting our Budget.

Secured commitment from the Strathclyde Pension Fund to a carbon divestment strategy.

Put equalities front and centre in our budget process, with Equality Impact Assessments now published with Budget papers and becoming a standard consideration for all options discussed.

What we will do next Put in place a further funding mechanism to raise money for a final equal pay settlement.

Further enshrine citizen engagement into the budget setting process and review options to put in place Wellbeing budgets.

Explore Green Finance mechanisms and options to raise money to fund the Glasgow Green Deal.

Engage with the Scottish Government in their planned review of local taxation and make the case for more local revenue-raising powers.

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SUPPORTING OUR WORKFORCE IN A CHANGING COUNCIL

12

Glasgow City Council is Scotland’s largest local authority, and one of the largest employers in the city. The SNP have been focused on reforming the Council, improving governance and supporting our vital Council workforce.

The Council has already undergone significant change – our Council Family review is taking a root and branch approach to every Arms Length External Organisation (ALEO) to ensure these arrangements remain fit for purpose, with City Parking, Community Safety Glasgow and care ALEO Cordia all brought back in house. And we are embracing an Open Government agenda, as well as the use of digital technology to improve the delivery of public services.

Ultimately, we know that the people who work for Glasgow City Council are our most vital asset. Over the last 5 years, we have engaged constructively with our workforce and trade unions to give our staff a fairer deal.

After years of Labour denying liability for their equal pay scandal, the SNP committed to righting this historic injustice, with £500million in compensation already paid out. And we have looked to respond to workforce asks in improving working conditions across the Council, as well as reiterating our commitment to no compulsory redundancies and paying the real Scottish living wage, ensuring we are a Fair Work employer.

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SUPPORTING OUR COUNCIL WORKFORCE

12.1

The SNP is committed to supporting Council staff and to working with them and their representatives – from delivering equal pay and supporting health and wellbeing, to responding to key union asks and improving working conditions.

What we've done Ended the 20-month Janitor Strike caused by the previous Labour administration with a fair settlement in negotiation with Trade Unions.

Brought thousands of staff back into the Council, including 3,300 staff formerly employed under the home care ALEO Cordia.

Committed to settling Labour’s equal pay scandal, paying out over £500m to settle the first tranche of equal pay claims up until 2018, with further payments for new claims for this period being made and negotiations ongoing to settle the subsequent period.

Begun a Job Evaluation process to implement a new discrimination-free pay structure.

Re-joined COSLA giving our workforce a voice in crucial national pay negotiations.

Created a new Health and Wellbeing strategy for staff, and introduced a new staff absence policy which is focussed on the needs of our workforce.

Introduced Kinship Care leave for Council staff on the same basis as foster care leave to support kinship care families.

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What we will do next Complete the Council’s Job Evaluation Process and introduce a discrimination free Pay Structure by 2023.

Establish a co-chaired Health & Wellbeing group between the Council and its employees and create a dedicated HR team and directly support employees.

Create a Joint Charter between Council management and trade unions in order to reset industrial relations.

Create a Skills Development Officer to work within a new staff training academy to support staff in furthering their skills and career opportunities within the council.

Reduce the number of agency staff the council uses while creating a pathway for agency staff to obtain full time employment opportunities within the council if they choose to do so.

Work with trade unions, COSLA & Scottish and UK governments to find ways to mitigate the cost of living crisis for staff.

Deliver on a programme of depot investment, with a depot forum involving staff and trade unions so they can have their say in the delivery of this investment.

Deliver almost £10m investment in a brand new council fleet, replacing an ageing fleet left by the previous Labour council.

Provide an additional £2m towards 50 new frontline staff with the creation of our Neighbourhood Enhancement teams.

Improve the diversity within our workforce so it reflects our communities by establishing an Employment Equality Action Plan.

Commit the Council to the Miscarriage Association’s Pregnancy Loss Pledge and ensure support for staff who experience pregnancy loss, including by enhancing terms and conditions to provide paid leave to any staff member who experiences miscarriage both before and after 24 weeks.

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A DIGITAL COUNCIL

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We know that digital technology and innovation has the potential to improve the delivery of public services within the city. The SNP has put in place Glasgow’s first ever Digital Champion and established a Digital Glasgow Strategy to drive forward this important agenda. Today, our Digital Glasgow programme is embedded across the Council family, and we will build on the progress we have made.

What we've done Appointed a Digital Champion, established the first ever Digital Glasgow Board and launched a Digital Glasgow Strategy to oversee the implementation of the city’s transition to digital public services.

Established a cross-sectoral Smart Cities Working Group to co-ordinate our efforts to innovate city systems with key partners.

Worked with partners in our Open Data and Innovation Working Group to drive this important agenda forward.

Progressed the Digital Citizen programme, improving online experience for citizens engaging with the Council.

What we will do next Continue to modernise our front-line neighbourhood services, bringing long overdue innovation to our cleansing and refuse collection services by completing the rollout of integrated service management infrastructure.

Complete work to improve pathways to report issues or request services online, and ensure these are linked up to operational systems to improve response times.

Undertake a full re-design of the Council’s website and review of online apps to improve the user experience and better signpost relevant information.

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Build on Glasgow’s Open Data Hub, working with city partners to increase the range of datasets available and embed collaborative open data approaches to enhancing public services.

Invest more in Smart City infrastructure and technology and expand and accelerate activity to secure Glasgow’s status as a world-leading Smart City, building on existing successful projects like the Smart Street and Smart Canal.

Create a Smart City Innovation Fund to fund Open Innovation competitions and hackathons, linked to our Digital Glasgow Business workstream.

AN OPEN AND WELL-GOVERNED COUNCIL

12.3

The SNP have set Glasgow City Council on a path of change, reforming its structures and processes to better serve Glaswegians. Our Council Family Review is taking an evidence-based approach to reviewing council service departments and ALEOs and we have signed up to the principles of Open Government to help improve transparency and participation in the democratic process.

What we've done Progressed our Council Family Review, completing or beginning a review of every ALEO – and bringing Cordia, City Parking and Community Safety Glasgow back in house.

Reviewed service structures, creating a new Neighbourhoods, Regeneration and Sustainability department to coordinate the delivery of Council activity geared towards servicing and enhancing our neighbourhoods and tackling the Climate Emergency.

Completed and accepted the recommendations of our Governance and Accountability Review into Council processes and procedures, conducted by the respected late Colin Mair.

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Brought Council proceedings to the public, with all meetings of the Council and its Committees being recorded and broadcast via the internet for the first time in the city’s history.

Accepted an invitation to join the Open Government Partnership, in recognition of the city’s efforts to become more transparent and to help ensure we continue our progress.

Created the first Glasgow City Charter, a document which was co-designed with the people of Glasgow and set out the values and ways of working that the people of our city should expect from the Council.

Improved and enhanced the information available to Glaswegians about the city’s services and the statistics that go alongside them, allowing anyone in the city to have far more detail about what the Council does and how it does it.

What we will do next Complete our Council Family Review to ensure our Council structures are fit for purpose, including Customer and Business Services, Glasgow Life and Civic functions, taking account of new and emerging issues and continuing to deliver best value.

Implement our Open Government Action Plan, the first of its kind for the city.

Host more Citizen’s Assemblies as we tackle further issues across the city.

Create an integrated digital platform for citizen engagement/online portal which will make understanding and getting involved with Council decision making far easier.

In redesigning the Council website, make information more accessible to the public and improve the transparency of decision-making.

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SECURING A VIBRANT AND GLOBAL GLASGOW

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Culture and the arts have been central to Glasgow’s re-emergence and transformation in recent decades. Over 30 years since the European Year of Culture marked a turning point in the city’s modern history, Glasgow is internationally recognised as a centre of creativity and vitality. Prior to the pandemic, the creative and cultural industries contributed over £1billion annually to the city economy, and combined with sports, heritage and hospitality employed almost 80,000 people across the west of Scotland.

Culture is part of our civic identity.

Culture and sport have been critical to the wellbeing of our communities and will be essential in helping Glaswegians recover from the trauma of the pandemic. Our culture and sport services make an invaluable contribution to every community in this city, not just through operating museums, galleries and sports facilities on behalf of our citizens but with their expertise and commitment to better, healthier and more fulfilled lives. The SNP believes every citizen deserves the best possible Glasgow life, healthy and active, with opportunities for learning and creative expression.

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CELEBRATING OUR CULTURE

13.1

From our libraries to our museums, Glasgow’s cultural assets are both an important part of our heritage and a vital means to support our city’s continued cultural wellbeing. The SNP has invested in the refurbishment of venues and secured support for the recovery of services impacted by the pandemic.

What we've done Completed the restoration of the Burrell Collection at Pollok Park, revitalising this important cultural asset for the city and levering in £35m of investment to Glasgow.

Achieved more than 4 million annual visits to Glasgow Museums, including the T Rex and Dippy exhibitions bringing more than 700k visitors, and establishing the Legacies of Slavery and Empire project.

Been named the UK’s Top Cultural and Creative City by the European Commission in 2019.

Achieved around 900k annual attendances at cultural venues and 250k at festivals including Celtic Connections, Glasgow Mela, Glasgow Film Festival and Merchant City Festival.

Maintained our UNESCO City of Music status, sharing our expertise with Tallinn to achieve their status, and exploring with Ukrainian peers how we can help preserve their cultural heritage.

Delivered the Creative Communities: Artists in Residence programme, with artists’ residencies delivered in all 23 wards of Glasgow.

Successfully secured Scottish Government funding to support the recovery of our library services and sports facilities following the pandemic, returning them to their central role in communities.

Overseen the multimillion-pound refurbishment of city libraries – including Castlemilk, Cardonald, Partick and Woodside Libraries – with Elder Park due to re-open this year.

Secured millions in financial gains for citizens who are entitled to welfare benefits through Universal Credit Support Hubs in Glasgow libraries.

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What we will do next Continue to reopen the remaining city venues that were closed due to the COVID pandemic.

Ensure that Glaswegians continue to freely participate in the cultural life of the city, protect free entry to museums for city residents and limit cost barriers to city-run events by developing a new free tickets scheme for schools.

Work with partners to explore the feasibility of a national museum dedicated to illuminating colonialism, imperialism and slavery based in Glasgow.

Protect the vital role of libraries in our communities, and explore options to open libraries in secondary schools to the general public.

Work with NHS partners to deliver Scotland’s first cultural prescription service to tackle mental health issues and increase social connection.

Commit to and promote fair pay for cultural freelancers and artists, with a commitment to paying sectoral union agreed rates as a minimum.

Work with partners to deliver a ‘Glasgow 850’ festival in 2025 to celebrate the 850th anniversary of Glasgow being granted burgh charter in 1175.

SPORTS AND EVENTS

13.2

Glasgow is increasingly seen as a premier events destination – our conferencing facilities have attracted major international events including COP 26 and an increasing number of global sporting events have chosen Glasgow as their backdrop. The SNP is focused on securing this important events legacy.

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What we've done Grown Glasgow Club membership to almost 49,000 immediately pre pandemic, the largest health and fitness membership in Scotland.

Supported over 35,000 physically inactive people to build confidence and make positive lifestyle changes through the Live Active Referral Scheme.

Been awarded European Capital of Sport 2023, the only city to have achieve this accolade twice.

Jointly hosted with Berlin the inaugural European Championships 2018 with over 137,300 attendances and reaching a TV audience of 1.2 billion.

Hosted the European Indoor Athletics Championships 2019 with over 20,000 attendances and 24 million global viewers.

Jointly hosted UEFA EURO 2020 at Hampden and established a fan zone at Glasgow Green for the entirety of the competition.

What we will do next Introduce sports community referrals to improve health and wellbeing and support delivery of non-medical health interventions.

Explore options for a free sports programme for under 16’s, with a target of 500 hours free access to sports classes/gym to improve health and tackle social issues.

Deliver and maximise the impact of 2023, Glasgow’s year as European Capital of Sport, and establish a Glasgow-led European Capital of Sport network.

Ensure the delivery of key international sporting events including UCI Cycling Championships 2023 and the World Athletics Indoor Championships 2024, with cycling and athletics legacies to improve participation.

Develop a new Events Strategy, including reviewing the impact on parks and public spaces and refining public engagement.

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A GLOBAL GLASGOW

13.3

Glasgow is the gateway to Scotland, an international city with a global reputation which continues to grow. As we face the twin challenges of Brexit and the Climate Emergency, it is critical that we continue to build on our relationships with European and other international colleagues.

The SNP has refreshed and reinvigorated Glasgow’s international standing, building on the unprecedented focus and attention generated through our hosting of COP26 and our reputation as an outward-facing, welcoming and cosmopolitan city.

Recognition through honours such as being one of the world’s leading festival and events destinations through to our award as the UK’s Top Cultural and Creative City has real impact on decisions to visit, live and invest in Glasgow.

What we've done Hosted COP 26 at the Scottish Events Campus, welcoming tens of thousands from all across the world.

Been awarded Global Green City status by the UN-backed Global Forum on Human Settlements.

Forged a partnership with the C40 network, around 100 of the world's leading climate action cities, and continuing to work closely with ICLEI, a global network of more than 2,500 local and regional governments committed to Climate Action.

Informed the G20 response to the Climate Emergency, the only UK city apart from London with a seat around the table.

Become a Partner City with Pittsburgh, cooperating and collaborating across many areas with one of the US’s most dynamic cities.

Worked closely with Eurocities network, retaining a direct line with peer cities across the European Union and signalling Glasgow’s continued eagerness to collaborate on the European stage.

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What we will do next Maintain a strong internationalist outlook and continue to attract both domestic and overseas visitors to Glasgow.

Conduct a human rights-led review of Glasgow’s Twin Cities/ Twinning Arrangements including the benefits to Glasgow and existing twins.

Prioritise the development of new and strategic partnerships, including our Partner City model such as that with Pittsburgh, based on thematic working and outcomes that benefit both cities.

Implement a new International Policy to enhance the inward investment, influence and impact of the city.

Build on city diplomacy to advance social and environmental justice, and focus and consolidate our activity in key international networks.

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Promoted by Jen Layden, on behalf of Glasgow SNP, both c/o the SNP, 3 Jackson’s Entry, Scotland, EH8 8PJ.