Last week, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves presented the first Labour budget in 14 years – a budget that will do a great deal to help the poorest.

It brings a significant pay rise for 200,000 of the lowest-paid workers in Scotland, putting us on track to deliver a £15 per hour wage for workers.

Crucially, this is a budget that ends a decade of the failed Tory austerity economics that has devastated communities across Glasgow and instead prioritises investment in our public services and infrastructure.

It is no secret; that this Labour government inherited public finances that were in a shambles – and it is not possible to completely fix that situation in just three months – but Rachel Reeves’ budget offers a welcome change in approach which will transform the economy by raising money from those with the broadest shoulders to invest in our NHS and schools.

When Scotland voted for Labour at the general election in July, we promised that Scotland’s interests would be put at the heart of the new government.

This is a budget that redeems that pledge for Scotland with an additional £1.5 billion for the Scottish Government to invest this financial year and a further £3.4 billion next year.

That is money that the SNP must now use to tackle the problems in our NHS and schools – they cannot just rely on the same tedious excuse of blaming ‘Westminster’, they must now take responsibility for making the improvements we all badly need to see across devolved public services and be honest about the trade-offs necessary to do so.

To echo the Scottish Trade Union Congress, “They have the money. They have the powers”.

The SNP leader of Glasgow City Council was quick to revert to type, criticising the 2% rise in the employer rate for National Insurance that is necessary to raise £20 billion in public revenue, claiming it would cost Glasgow City Council over £50 million, but this will be reimbursed for the public sector.

Of course, she had nothing to say when the SNP Scottish Government cut the revenue budget for councils by £62.7 million and the capital budget by £54.9 million this year.

Indeed, Glasgow has had the largest reduction in real terms revenue funding from the Scottish Government over the last decade, and the longest-serving council leader in the city’s history has been complicit in the decline of our city’s public services.

The SNP-led council has already slashed 172 teaching jobs across the city and will cut a further 450 in the next three years – make no mistake, this will hurt those in Glasgow’s poorest areas the most.

With the Labour budget delivering the largest budget settlement for the Scottish Government in the history of devolution, there is no justification for the SNP to continue to decimate teacher numbers in Glasgow. This must be immediately reversed.

Not only that, but the Labour budget must also be a clear turning point in terms of capital investment in Scotland.

There are several shovel-ready investment opportunities in Glasgow that are just waiting to be given the green light.

The team at the Scottish Events Campus (SEC) on the banks of the Clyde have ambitious expansion plans that would double the capacity at the SEC allowing the venue to continue to compete in the growing global conference market and host further major events like that of COP26 in 2021.

Their £80 million plan requires public investment which would in turn pay for itself quickly – adding significant growth to the city’s economy.

Last year I asked the Scottish Government if it would explore capital funding options to enable the SEC’s expansion; however, the Minister for Business Richard Lochhead MSP said that budgetary pressures meant it wasn’t possible.

Last Wednesday’s Labour budget represented a turning point in approach to the economy and now the ball is firmly in the Scottish Government’s court, and it must seek to use capital funding to grow Glasgow’s economy.

With the new government already securing £100 million of investment in Glasgow with the 2026 Commonwealth Games, let’s maximise that legacy with progress on projects like the SEC expansion, district heat networks and Clyde Metro.

We now need decisive action to invest in Glasgow, no more excuses.