February in the Council is always dominated by budget conversations (although of course the work begins long before then, and our group have been submitting motions and questions about budget spending all year-round).
This year, those conversations have been a little less fraught than usual thanks to the overall budget being a bit less bleak than in previous years. Some of this is down to the work of Green MSPs – pushing the Transient Visitor Levy legislation over the line (after Edinburgh Councillor Steve Burgess first proposed it over a decade ago!) amending the Housing Bill to allow councils to transfer money from the General Fund to the Housing Revenue Account budget (read more about it from Cllr Ben Parker here: Green plans to reduce social rents), and consistently pushing for fairer funding for local authorities from the Scottish Government. And some of it is down to our group successfully making the case for the Council to spend differently over the past few years.
A good start
The way that our city’s budget is set is that council staff produce an ‘officer budget’ which makes proposals for council tax and social rent increases, other ways to raise revenue, and plans for allocating the council’s £10.3bn budget. In practice, this is normally the budget that the Labour administration end up proposing, sometimes with a few tweaks. Other parties then submit ‘amendments’ to this budget, which set out how they would like to see the budget spent. In previous years the Green councillors have felt like that we have had to change almost everything in this officer budget – reversing cuts, putting money towards tackling climate change, and challenging spending which benefits the wealthiest residents at the expense of everyone else.
This year though, there was much to be welcomed by green supporters – both in the main budget and in the Transient Visitor Levy budget which was agreed two weeks ago:
- The recommendation to transfer £38m from the General Fund to the Housing Revenue Account over the next ten years. The work of Cllr Ben Parker to push for this since being elected in 2022 absolutely can’t be underestimated.
- Significant funding for the third sector to work in communities across Edinburgh including on preventing health inequalities, something I have been highlighting by challenging third sector cuts at the Integration Joint Board.
- Investment in accessible public toilets which has always been a core feature of Green budgets, as well as being an issue that is consistently raised by Cllr Dan Heap
- Continued action on climate change and flooding, following Greens accidentally breaking the budget process (sorrynotsorry) in 2023 when there was no spending on climate change at all.
We’re pleased to see signs of Green successes throughout the officer budget this year.
Still more to do
Of course, we wouldn’t be doing our job as Green councillors if we were happy with ‘better but still not great’ and so as usual we are proposing a suite of changes to the officer budget to increase spending in our three priority areas of tackling the climate and nature crises, investing in equalities, and ending the housing emergency. You can read our full budget proposals, including our equality and climate impact statements here.
For those of you who don’t want to wade through 130 pages (ours starts on page 63) some of my top highlights are:
- A public diner trial – Nourish Scotland have been doing great work to promote the idea of public diners to help tackle poverty, ill-health and social isolation, and we think Edinburgh is the perfect place to run a pilot.
- Better enforcement for the private rented sector – we want to stop rogue landlords from operating below the radar and renting out substandard properties to renters who have no other choice.
- Welcoming new Scots – in the face of rising fascism, we’re making it clear that Edinburgh welcomes refugees, with a suite of spending proposals from free buses for asylum seekers, to investing in training programmes targeted at migrants and refugees.
- Supporting parents – topping up childcare funding to close the loophole impacting some three year olds, increasing the adoption allowance, and cancelling school meal debts are all included to help parents struggling with the cost-of-living crisis
- In-housing security staff – we had a big success earlier last year when we persuaded the council to employ some security staff directly and not via exploitative private companies; now it’s time for this to apply to all security staff
- Moving money from roads to pavements and cycle paths – the City Mobility Plan is the council document which sets out plans to prioritise active travel, pedestrian safety, and accessible streets, but progress on it has stalled. We want less money spent to benefit private car owners, and more on making our streets work for everyone
Where’s the money coming from?
As well as our proposal to transfer budget from the General Fund to the Housing Revenue Account to help lower rents, we have two other key proposals to help us improve services for people in Edinburgh.
- First, we are proposing to increase Council Tax by 6% rather than 5%. Council Tax is a regressive tax and our party policy is to scrap it and replace it with something more progressive. But it is still the main way for Councils to raise the funds we need to deliver vital services. An extra percentage point on Council Tax will see someone in band D pay an extra £15.64 per year, and raise £3.6m – we are using this money on anti-poverty measures to help the most vulnerable people in Edinburgh.
- Second, we are using new powers to increase the Council Tax premiums on second and empty homes to 300% – not only will this increase money, but it will help encourage the owners of these homes to sell up, and help us tackle the city’s housing emergency.
On Thursday we’ll be hoping to get other parties to support as many of our budget proposals as possible to get the best possible deal for the people of Edinburgh – you can follow the action online here: Agenda for City of Edinburgh Council on Thursday, 26th February, 2026, 10.00 am and we’ll also be keeping you updated on our socials.
So what happened?
Well, as expected, Labour did a deal with their old pals the tories and the lib dems, to pass a budget which saw far less investment in public services than we were proposing.
Convener of the Green Councillor Group Cllr Kinross O’Neill reacted to the budget decision saying:
“We’re disgusted that once again Labour have betrayed the people of Edinburgh and chosen to side with the tories to prop up their failing administration, rather than push for spending decisions which would benefit so many across the city. By rejecting proposals to increase funding for anti-poverty measures, for community cohesion projects, and for improving road safety for pedestrians, Labour have shown their true colours, and we are angry on behalf of the public who are crying out for ambitious leadership which recognises the struggles they are facing. Greens will continue to push for public money to be used for the benefit of the public, despite the best efforts of other parties who simply see Budget Day as an opportunity to trade political favours.”
On the budget for housing, Cllr Kinross-O’Neill continued:
“Greens had clear, costed proposals to limit the rent increases for council tenants, saving individuals between £100 and £200 a year. These proposals were rejected by the administration, along with plans to increase the council’s ability to crackdown on rogue landlords and protect renters. This is despite hearing powerful testimony from tenants suffering due to the cost-of-living crisis and poor living standards. Labour even went so far as to refuse the very idea of having a report which looked at the possibility of reducing social rents, something they have failed to provide any rationale for.”
During the meeting, the Section 95 Officer of the Council – the proper officer responsible for discharging the financial duties of the council – made it clear that limiting the council tax increase to 4% could result in future cuts to Council services. Despite this, Labour accepted this proposal. The Green Group’s financial spokesperson, Cllr Alex Staniforth, responded:
“In accepted future Tory cuts the Labour administration have set the council up for failure. They know they are facing electoral oblivion so don’t care that their imprudence, made clear by the Section 95 officer, will have to be tackled by future councils.”
So it was a pretty depressing day all round, but Greens are committed to fighting for things that will make Edinburgh a better place for everyone – year round, not just on budget day.