Glasgow £7.7bn smaller under SNP, says Darren Jones

The Herald Scotland

5 hours ago

The Labour MP compared its performance to Greater Manchester, which grew by nearly 50% between 2014 and 2022.
'If the Glasgow City Region had achieved that same level of growth, it would be £7.7bn larger today,' he said.
The council disputed Mr Jones's figures, and said recent economic data showed the Glasgow City Region outpaced both Greater Manchester and the West Midlands in growth in recent years.
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His comments came after Susan Aitken, the leader of the SNP administration in Glasgow, wrote to Scottish Secretary Ian Murray to express her 'disappointment' that Rachel Reeves had failed to offer a devolution deal for the region.
She said the UK Government had 'disempowered' the city.
The Chancellor's Spending Review included detailed commitments to expand integrated settlements for English city regions.
Instead of having to bid for different pots of money, some areas in England now get one large, flexible budget they can spend over several years.
This means local mayors have more freedom to decide how to invest in things like housing, transport and skills.
Chief Secretary Darren Jones arrives in Downing Street (Image: Stefan Rousseau) After the latest Spending Review, this kind of funding is being extended to London, the North East, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and the Liverpool City Region.
They will join Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, which already have these deals. In total, it means four in ten people in England will live in places where local leaders control how money is spent on growing the economy and improving public services.
Ms Aitken said the lack of a similar deal for Glasgow meant it would be 'reduced to simply administering programmes on behalf of UK Government as if it were a small local authority'.
She added: 'The empowerment of our comparator city regions in England and the disempowerment of Glasgow City Region threatens all of the progress we have made.'
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In his column, Mr Jones said Glasgow had not been 'sidelined' in the Spending Review, pointing to £1.7 billion of potential investment from a new investment zone, £250 million for Faslane, and millions more for town centre regeneration in communities across the region — including Drumchapel, Coatbridge, Greenock and Clydebank.
He said: 'I could continue to list the monetary value of UK Government investments for Glasgow and Scotland, but I know that when it comes to changing things, power can be just as important as pounds.
'Progress made in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands is proof that our big city regions can do more when they have greater control over funding and decisions in their areas.
'But in Scotland, the decision to devolve power from Holyrood and empower the city regions rests firmly with the Scottish Government.
'I know that Anas Sarwar and my colleagues in Scottish Labour have begun to set out plans for directly elected mayors, with powers over skills and transport, so they can turbocharge growth in their cities and regions.
'This is the kind of fresh thinking that cities such as Glasgow deserve.
"This is in contrast to years of the SNP centralising power in Holyrood and cutting funding to Scotland's councils."
Glasgow Council Leader Susan Aitken hit back at the Treasury ministerCllr Aitken welcomed Mr Jones's recognition of the value of city region devolution, but accused him of implying that the UK Government would only agree to such a deal for Scottish cities if Labour won next year's Holyrood election.
She said: 'Darren Jones is absolutely right to say that the devolution of resources to our city regions is essential to drive growth and innovation — and that Greater Manchester and the West Midlands are now, clearly, starting to reap the benefits of the deals they have been handed by the UK Government.
'That is exactly why Glasgow City Region wants the same backing — and why I am disappointed to see him imply that the UK Government's willingness to support Glasgow and Edinburgh depends on the result of next year's Scottish Parliament elections.
'Glasgow's city region partners know very well that many of the administrative powers we are seeking rest with the Scottish Government — which is why the proposition we have made has been made jointly to both of our governments, at Holyrood and Westminster.
'The Chief Secretary is, however, rather evading the point — which is that the UK Government is continuing to give the impression that it is not prepared to back cities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with the kind of single-pot funding deal that is being offered to their English counterparts.
'Simply pulling together a list of previously committed funding — most of it announced by the previous government — does not come anywhere close to giving Scottish cities what our English counterparts will benefit from.'
The city council also disputed Mr Jones's figures, pointing to recent data which showed that in 2023, the Glasgow City Region recorded growth of 10.8% — higher than Greater Manchester on 10.2% and the West Midlands on 9.5%.
Unemployment in the region fell to just 2.9% in 2024, compared to 5.0% in Greater Manchester and 6.4% in the West Midlands.