Our Plan to #RebuildGlasgow
Introduction
Glasgow is a city with endless potential, one of the best in the world. Unfortunately, our current SNP Council just can’t see it. Their constant obsession with the constitutional question has meant that our city has limped on from disaster to disaster, failing to capitalise on the amazing opportunities gifted to us these past five years.
This must change in May.
We have an opportunity to set the course for the next five years - to ensure we have well-paying jobs, economic growth, good quality homes and a city centre that Glaswegians can finally be proud of.
That’s what this Business and Growth Manifesto sets out to do. It outlines clear examples of how the Glasgow Conservatives would use any influence we have after the May elections to drive forward positive change in our city.
We’d reform the archaic planning system, invest in our town centres, build more mixed housing developments, strengthen the City Centre Living Strategy and support our struggling night time economy, hospitality sector & taxi trade.
Simply put, the SNP Council believe being Pro-Business, Pro-Growth and Pro-Investment is something to be ashamed of - we disagree.
For the Glasgow Conservatives this is about putting our city back on the map as the thriving hub of investment we know it can be.
With your help and support, I am confident we can do just that on May 5th.
Cllr Thomas Kerr, Glasgow Conservative Leader
Small Business Support
Glasgow’s small businesses are the backbone of local economies throughout the city. But during the Coronavirus pandemic they have been treated with disdain by the Council’s SNP administration. Unfortunately, through no fault of their own, many were forced out of business by the SNP’s mishandling of Covid support grants – with Glasgow businesses forced to suffer endless delays in accessing the cash they were entitled to.
Glasgow Conservatives will protect small businesses from SNP failure by:
● Immediately bring together a Glasgow City Council Business Forum, chaired by the Leader of the Council, that will engage and work directly with those hospitality businesses, retailers, developers and other key people in the city.
● Start the groundwork, with the forum, to launch a rival app to Uber Eats/ Just Eat etc called Glasgow Eats that would ensure small local businesses keep more of their profit.
● Review the Council’s procurement strategy to ensure local businesses have a level playing field during the bidding process.
● Support calls by the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party for a 75% Rates Relief for the retail sector for the entire year.
● Immediate review of the Council’s rate valuation registers to ensure that it is up to date, so we never have small businesses struggling to get funds during a global pandemic again.
● Support the roll-out of Gift Cards to low income families but increase it to £150.
● Launch a campaign alongside Chamber of Commerce to sign up more local businesses including hospitality and small retailers to stimulate growth in local high streets
Planning Reform
Glasgow’s inefficient planning system is holding back economic development. Investors and residents alike need confidence that their applications will be dealt with fairly and in a reasonable timeframe.
That is why Glasgow Conservatives will seek to:
● Empower local communities by giving applicants and/or their agents, as well as objectors, the opportunity to speak at committee.
● Remove officer recommendations and undertake a full review of delegated powers.
● Ensure there is a dedicated planning lawyer present for each committee meeting.
● Implement a target for determination of minor/major applications.
● Undertake an immediate review of the current zoning policy, working with the business community, with the intention of supporting and enhancing development and investment into the Glasgow economy.
Renewing Our Town Centre
Glasgow City Centre has been hit hard by the pandemic. A report in November revealed that only one in twelve workers has returned to the city centre – well below half the UK average – and retail activity continues to be constrained by a lack of footfall, with visitor numbers down one million compared with 2019. This bleak picture is repeated on high streets across Glasgow, from Shettleston Road in the East End to Shawlands in the Southside. Unfortunately, the SNP in Glasgow have actively made the situation worse. They have now proposed a car-free zone with absolutely no consultation with any of the residents or businesses that would be affected.
Glasgow Conservatives will seek to:
● Scrap all parking charges in Glasgow to help stimulate the economy and bring people into our high streets.
● Sell Council-owned derelict and vacant land for development or temporary greenspace.
● Order a full review of City Property and their portfolio with the prospect of selling properties to those businesses with a good case to help encourage economic investment.
● Focus on regenerating town centres by reviewing current restrictions on planning so that empty shop units can be turned into homes.
● Support the City Centre Living Strategy but push for the timescale to be brought forward. Enough talk, it’s time we started delivering.
● Vote against any proposals to make Glasgow City Centre a “car free zone” over the next 5 years.
● Vote against any SNP/Green anti-jobs proposals that would ban drive-through restaurants in Glasgow.
Night-Time Economy and Taxi Trade
Glasgow’s night-time industries are the bedrock of the city’s cultural landscape and represents over £2 billion worth of value to the city’s economy – supporting over 16,000 full time jobs. But the SNP’s contempt for night-time businesses threatens those livelihoods – from their shambolic vaccine passport rollout to their shameful amount of time it took for business grants to reach bank accounts.
To show our support for both trades, the Glasgow Conservatives will seek to:
● Pause the implementation of the Low Emission Zone for all taxis until 2025 so that drivers have more time to get their vehicles ready.
● Look at the loan system for taxi drivers so that we can make the transition to new electric vehicles cheaper.
● Formalise the 4am pilot for nightclub venues in Glasgow following the successful trial.
● Trial a later time limit for outdoor seating in pubs and restaurants.
● Hire new licensing enforcement officers to ensure that they are visible in and around the city centre to clamp down on illegal parking in taxi ranks and pirating. ● Suspend licensing fees for two years for the hospitality trade to help them recover from the pandemic.
● Make the joint meeting between the Licensing Board and Licensing Forum twice a year so the board can hear more concerns regularly from those in the trade.
Housing
Surgeon’s Scottish Government, the timescales and targets are consistently missed, and Glasgow is seeing a rise in the number of homeless people. That simple isn’t good enough.
That’s why the Glasgow Conservatives would:
● Consult on the break-up of Glasgow Housing Association into local HAs more in touch with the needs of the communities they serve.
● Create a cross-party forum to be chaired jointly with a new City Convenor for homelessness and charity organisations.
● Glasgow residents deserve to have the choice of what type of tenure best fits their needs. That is why we will support mixed community housing developments and support the use of mid-market rent.
● Promote using brownfield sites for housing development and bringing empty homes into use.
● Ease planning rules to allow use of former shops/office space to be transformed into good housing.
● Speed up new building programmes for socially rented homes.
● Support applications for larger family housing and disabled access housing.
● Create a City Centre Economic Investment Zone that would:
i. Reduce the cost of housing development by relaxing Section 75 contribution requirements to encourage investment which is of benefit to Glasgow.
ii. Task Council Officers to look at what further steps could be taken to encourage investment into the city centre by the City Council including reduced or waived fees for new businesses and developments, new/ improved civic spaces and infrastructure and improved transport accessibility to particular areas of the city centre.
iii. Accelerate the City Centre Living Strategy to ensure we are bringing more people back into our city centre.
iv. Consider further areas of the city where an Economic Investment Zone could be created to assist in developing brownfield and derelict sites as well as creating jobs in areas with higher local unemployment
Utilising Glasgow's Assets
Glasgow has some amazing assets right on our doorstep but for some reason Glasgow City Council, under all parties, has failed to enhance and utilise them. From our cultural assets to our beautiful River Clyde, Glasgow has so much potential if given the chance to flourish.
That’s why the Glasgow Conservatives would:
● Launch an updated strategy around the River Clyde on how we can best utilise it by bringing restaurants, bars, hotels and other attractions to our riverside.
● Support the SECC in expanding their complex and work with them on better transport links to it.
● Build on the legacy of successful films being shot in Glasgow like Batman and Indiana Jones by supporting the film and TV industry into our city through incentives.
● Support proposals for an “urban beach” at the front of the Clyde like Dundee City Council has done to bring tourists down to our riverside.
● Free up planning rules around the front of the river to ensure more development, including the ending of “zoning” rules that has hindered investment
Conclusion
Local government is vital to Glasgow. It is a way of holding local politicians to account, making sure that local services run smoothly and, crucially, ensuring that local issues are at the forefront of the council’s thinking. For too long, however, the council has been negligent.
Glasgow is a spectacular city with world-class potential. However, in recent years it has been let down by an independence-obsessed SNP and a weak, dithering Labour Party. The city and its people deserve better.
The pandemic shrunk the Scottish economy by a tenth. The SNP, with its constant posturing and obsession with baseless restrictions is harming the economy even further. We believe that the economy is going to be the foremost challenge faced by councils and governments in the coming years and an anti-business SNP is not what is required in order to drive Scotland’s recovery and fix its economy.
Throughout the pandemic, the Scottish Conservatives have sought to strike a balance between protecting lives and protecting livelihoods, between supporting measures to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 while safeguarding jobs and businesses. With a Conservative council, we pledge to support the local businesses that have suffered from some of the harshest measures during the pandemic.
We must back every community across Scotland so that they can succeed. We will empower local councils to support local businesses and support our public services to help those who rely on them and kickstart our economy to create jobs. We can unlock Glasgow’s true potential as we focus on an economy-led recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The current council administration has failed Glasgow. It has failed to protect its vulnerable, failed to galvanise its economy, and failed at producing a credible recovery plan. Only the Scottish Conservatives stand for pro-business, pro-economy policies that create jobs and help level up the Scottish economy.
Miles Briggs, MSP Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government
