Major Scottish council overspent budget by more than £38 million as nursery cuts considered

The overspend was revealed as a leading trade union warned councillors are likely to consider cuts to nursery services and additional support needs provision while saving up to £8 million at a crunch budget meeting on Thursday.

The GMB said Glasgow’s education staff were being pushed to breaking point.

The council had been looking at axing 450 teaching posts over a three-year period as part of a savings drive, with around 120 roles already scrapped.

A planned strike by teachers in the city was suspended this week following talks between the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) teaching union and the city council which reportedly included an offer from the Glasgow City Council SNP group to withdraw future planned education cuts.

However, the GMB is concerned the cuts could now hit vital support staff and are urging the city council to “come clean” on looming cuts to education budgets, warning crucial workers were already being pushed to breaking point.

It has been revealed rising utility prices and increased rent, rates and repairs across the council’s properties led to an almost £23m overspend in the neighbourhoods, regeneration and sustainability (NRS) department between April and December 13.

The council has also spent more on refuse collection and disposal, with the use of agency staff, paying for overtime, transport costs and a shortfall in income partly responsible. Higher street lighting costs and traffic management contractor costs also contributed to the department’s position.

In education services, there has been a £13.2m overspend as a result of pupil roll increases and “additional staffing required to meet the increasing complexity of pupil needs in the ASL [additional support for learning] sector”.

Transport costs have also increased and income is “under-recovered in secondary schools in relation to school letting and school meal income”.

The overspend is expected to be covered by a budget support fund, which Labour councillor Jill Brown said had not been set up to cover “running costs”. She asked how the council would ensure “departments are actually going to be living within their means” when the fund runs out.

City treasurer Ricky Bell said the fund had been “set up in order to allow us to look at how we can do things differently”. But he added: “I think we have had a perfect storm over the last couple of years and I think there has been no other way for the council to deal with that other than rely on some of the funding coming from the budget support fund.”

The alternative would have been “very, very large increases in council tax, which I don’t think the residents of Glasgow would thank us for”, he added.

Councillors would have to consider spending pressures when setting future budgets, Cllr Bell said.

Cllr Jon Molyneux, from the Greens, said the local authority needed to consider how departments could have “more financial rigour and financial management, so elected members have some assurance that if we address the pressures next week, we’re not going to end up back in the same position in two or three years”.