Susan Aitken: 'It's Glasgow's turn' - transforming this great city

The Connectivity Commission’s key focus was on how vitally important transport is to Glasgow’s health, well-being and prosperity. Not only do improved connections unlock huge economic and social potential and open up so many more opportunities for Glaswegians but transport is also an issue we have to get to grips with to address the climate emergency.

Last week, the Commission’s recommendations for the greater Glasgow area took a huge step forward with the announcement by Michael Matheson, Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport, that the Scottish Government was progressing plans for a Clyde Metro. Metro will be an entire new transport system, bigger than any in these islands outside London. Perhaps the best comparison in the UK is Greater Manchester’s Metrolink. But it will surpass even the scale of that successful project, bringing up to £15 billion of transformational investment into the Glasgow city region over the next three decades.

When the Connectivity Commission unveiled its report almost three years ago, it concluded that a Metro system was the obvious omission for a city of Glasgow’s scale, standing and ambitions. For the past 30 to 40 years cities across the UK, Europe and beyond have been busy building exactly this type of modern rapid transit system. So many of us have experienced Metros when travelling abroad, so why hasn’t an international city like Glasgow been able to offer an international travelling experience to our citizens?

Those charged with the stewardship of Glasgow before 2017 hadn’t even bothered with a transport strategy for years. And for far too long Labour’s only transport aspiration was a rail link going to and from Glasgow Airport. Don’t get me wrong. Better connecting the airport is vitally important and will be a priority for Metro. But the fixation with this one project couldn’t answer so many long-standing challenges which have held our city back. Such as how Glasgow can address having the lowest car ownership levels in Britain yet some of the highest levels of pollution and congestion. Or why communities like Darnley or Drumchapel remain so poorly connected to public services such as hospitals. Or indeed what the solutions are to challenges such as connecting people in Croftfoot or Carntyne or so many of the city’s other poorly served communities to employment opportunities elsewhere in the city region. Instead of wasting years with nothing to show but angry headlines, previous administrations should have been working with partners to deliver clean, modern transport systems which serve as many citizens as possible. This is what city leaderships even in Manchester, never mind across the world, had been doing. Well, we are now.

Delivering Metro will likely take a couple of decades to complete. The commitment to proceed with developing it are part of what’s known as the Strategic Projects Transport Review, which is itself a 20 year blueprint. (The first review in 2008 led to the construction of the Queensferry crossing and electrification of the Glasgow to Edinburgh rail link.) The next milestone is working with Transport Scotland and other partners to develop the crucial and detailed business case. It’s then we’ll know the answers to questions around routes and destinations, technologies involved, costs and who will operate Metro.

In the meantime, in the days ahead more details will emerge of Glasgow’s wider transport strategy for the next 10 years. We know that in the meantime there is much to do with what we have and using our influence to deliver better fares, routes and frequency of service for bus passengers, more dedicated lanes for those choosing active travel and a safer travelling experience for women.

Making the national case for Metro has been a major focus of my City Government’s transport ambitions for Glasgow. Last week’s announcement an incredible landmark and an enormously exciting moment. Glasgow’s turn has, indeed, come at last.

When the SNP became Glasgow’s new political administration in 2017 we did so with a commitment to resolve Labour’s long standing pay discrimination against women. Thousands of women were denied what amounted to hundreds of millions of pounds in pay because of political fixes agreed to protect particular groups of male workers. Later Labour council leaders who didn’t themselves put the fixes in place did, however, fight tooth and nail to keep them in place.

It wasn’t an easy process but we delivered an equal pay settlement in excess of £500m, a huge first step. We knew there would be future phases, with new claimants emerging and the need to put in place a new pay and grading structure to replace the discriminatory system. No-one - not the Council, trade unions or lawyers representing the vast majority of claimants - believed this next phase would be quick or easy. And that’s quite aside from a two year interruption to the work due to the pandemic.

Right now, the Council team is working through a process agreed with the claimants’ representatives, we’re making good progress and – as they are aware - hope to be in a position to make offers soon to new claimants. If we can reach agreement on an offer then interim payments could be made soon after that. And as closer to normal working returns, we will also aim to agree the new pay and grading system at a faster pace, finally eradicating discrimination against those in female-dominated roles. I’m confident that settlement of this second phase of resolving this shameful episode of Glasgow’s recent history will happen.

I must be clear. My administration remains 100% committed to delivering pay justice every step of the way. But as we emerge from the pandemic, the scale of the cost of Labour’s discrimination, not just to the women and the Council, but to the entire city, is becoming ever clearer. A generation of Glasgow Labour politicians either directly oversaw or did nothing to challenge this discrimination. For them to pretend now that the financial challenges that are the direct consequence of their actions are nothing to do with them is a brass neck to rival Boris Johnson’s. Glasgow – and especially Glasgow’s women – won’t forget what they did.