Glasgow City Council will pay a staggering £1.5billion to rent its own buildings over 30 years to settle £770million of equal pay claims.
“It will be decades before the council owns its own buildings once again. That’s a depressing state of affairs that speaks to the parlous state of local government finances.” In order to meet the cost, the council set up a network of “arms-length” companies and sold off its most valuable property assets.
A council source said: “Nobody is suggesting that the workers, mainly women, who are receiving payouts are not entitled to them, however the financial impact of this will be felt for decades. “That is likely to come through increased council tax bills, the introduction of congestion charges, parking charges, fees for renting football pitches or charging for entry to galleries, parks and museums which has been free until now.
Two newly built schools - Sighthill Community Campus and Gowanbank Primary School - were also sold to finance the deal. They were recently completed for around £20million each. For those loans properties sold off included recently built state of the art sports facilities Tollcross International Swimming Centre and the Emirates Arena and Scotstoun and Bellahouston Leisure Centres.
The Lib Dem’s Willie Rennie added: “For years the SNP and their green allies have passed budgets that take an axe to the budget for local government.