Glasgow needs John Swinney to give councils more cash in his budget today or services will be hit and jobs lost, the city’s treasurer has said.

Richard Bell, City Treasurer, said the council is facing its biggest ever budget gap with a figure of £120m looking over the council finances.

Bell said he and council leader, Susan Aitken, have asked the Scottish Government for more money but that whatever the council gets he knows it will not be enough to plug the gap.

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Swinney, the Deputy First Minister and acting Finance secretary, while Kate Forbes is on maternity leave, will announce the budget this afternoon in Holyrood.

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He is under pressure from Cosla, which represents councils to give more money to local government as councils across Scotland face big spending cuts with rising costs.

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Bell said: “The easiest thing for us to do is to ask the Scottish Government for more money but we know they are in a cash-strapped situation too.

“We continue to ask for as much as possible but they need to look at allowing us more ways to raise more money.”

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The Treasurer outlined the scale of the budget crisis the council is facing.

He said: “We are in an extremely challenging position with a £120m deficit. It has never been this high.

“Even if we halved that, it would still be the biggest deficit we’ve ever seen.

“It will mean some very tough decisions.”

He detailed the impact it will have on the council:

Bell said: “The vast majority of our costs are staffing costs.

“I can’t see how it’s possible without reducing headcount but we have a no compulsory redundancy policy.

“We need the money to voluntary redundancy schemes more attractive.”

One of the budget factors is the cost of settling the equal pay claims, which the city will be paying for decades to come.

He added: “We are already paying £40m a year for 30 years for the equal pay settlement.

“If we were able to cut the deficit to £60m and didn’t have the £40m for equal pay it would be more manageable, but we do have the £40m, and it was the right thing to do.

“The immediate challenge is more money now.  Inflation is a big driver of costs if the forecast for inflation is lower that would help.

“We have made our case to the Scottish Government. We are not expecting them to be able to put enough money on the table to close a £120m gap.

“We know there is limited money and money for local government would have to come from somewhere else like police or health.”