Data supplied by Glasgow City Council in
2005
53 - 67 Byres Road
4/6 Dowanhill Street
174/182 Dumbarton Road
165/169A Great George Street
407-439 Great Western Road
33-37 Riverford Road
254/290 Sauchiehall Street
119A-123 Gorbals Street
1284 Dumbarton Road
41/43 Nithsdale Drive
249/257 Sauchiehall Street
Humbie Farm, Mearnskirk
Virginia Street (Servitude)
234 London Road
120 Woodville Street
Common Good Fund
Glasgow Common Good Fund is stated as having a balance of £ 10,811,000 in the 2005/06 Accounts of Glasgow City Council.
Commentary
The list of assets given above is clearly incomplete as it does not include parks and museums such as Glasgow Green and Kelvingrove Museum. A more recent (and different) list was supplied by the Council in May 2007 in response to a request under Freedom of Information. Download covering letter (link removed 17/12) and May 2007 list.
The Common Good of the City of Glasgow has come under the spotlight in recent months due to the wholesale transfer of the management of the Culture and Leisure Department functions to a charity called Culture and Sport Glasgow (www.csglasgow.org). These plans prompted a long correspondence in the Herald. See 25 letters here and a further few here. The assets that this organisation is managing includes many Common Good properties. These all remain in the ownership of the Council and are leased by Culture and Sport Glasgow at a peppercorn rent. A full list of the transferred assets is provided in Annex IV of the Outline Business Case (which you can download here).
A Briefing Paper on Common Good was prepared for the Board Meeting of Culture and Sport Glasgow on 27 June. I have requested a copy of this paper.
Historically the Glasgow Common Good Fund has diminished greatly in value. A paper prepared by the Scottish Home Department in 1949 which lists the finances of Common Good Funds across Scotland for the year ending 15th May 1948 makes interesting reading. The headline figures are as follows
GLASGOW COMMON GOOD FUND
Receipts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £ 147,988
Expenditure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £ 101,253
Balance of Fund including capital value of assets. . . . . . . . . . . . . £ 952,728
Using a multiplier of 23.5 to account for inflation (RPI figures from Office for National Statistics) gives 2005 figures of
Receipts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£ 3,477,718
Expenditure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £ 2,379,445
Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £ 22,389,108
Compare these figures with the figures from the City Council's 2004/5 Accounts.
receipts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £ 839,000 (24% of what they were in 1948)
expenditure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £ 1,173,000 (49% of what was spent in 1948)
balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £10,621,000 (47% of the value in 1948)
In addition, the 1949 paper contains the following comment
"In addition on the Glasgow Municipal Transport Undertaking, variously valued at between £6,000,000 and £10,000,000 forms, by statute, a part of the Common Good. The undertaking has, up to the present, paid over to the Common Good by way of surpluses on annual working sums amounting to almost £1,500,000"
So this adds another £ 141 to 235 million to 1948 value at current prices giving a total current value of £ 153m - £ 257m, some 15 to 25 times larger than the reality in 2005.
It would be useful to find out what happened to the revenue from the Glasgow Municipal Transport Undertaking which contributed so much to the value of the Common Good Fund in 1948.
Correspondent
various
53 - 67 Byres Road
4/6 Dowanhill Street
174/182 Dumbarton Road
165/169A Great George Street
407-439 Great Western Road
33-37 Riverford Road
254/290 Sauchiehall Street
119A-123 Gorbals Street
1284 Dumbarton Road
41/43 Nithsdale Drive
249/257 Sauchiehall Street
Humbie Farm, Mearnskirk
Virginia Street (Servitude)
234 London Road
120 Woodville Street
Common Good Fund
Glasgow Common Good Fund is stated as having a balance of £ 10,811,000 in the 2005/06 Accounts of Glasgow City Council.
Commentary
The list of assets given above is clearly incomplete as it does not include parks and museums such as Glasgow Green and Kelvingrove Museum. A more recent (and different) list was supplied by the Council in May 2007 in response to a request under Freedom of Information. Download covering letter (link removed 17/12) and May 2007 list.
The Common Good of the City of Glasgow has come under the spotlight in recent months due to the wholesale transfer of the management of the Culture and Leisure Department functions to a charity called Culture and Sport Glasgow (www.csglasgow.org). These plans prompted a long correspondence in the Herald. See 25 letters here and a further few here. The assets that this organisation is managing includes many Common Good properties. These all remain in the ownership of the Council and are leased by Culture and Sport Glasgow at a peppercorn rent. A full list of the transferred assets is provided in Annex IV of the Outline Business Case (which you can download here).
A Briefing Paper on Common Good was prepared for the Board Meeting of Culture and Sport Glasgow on 27 June. I have requested a copy of this paper.
Historically the Glasgow Common Good Fund has diminished greatly in value. A paper prepared by the Scottish Home Department in 1949 which lists the finances of Common Good Funds across Scotland for the year ending 15th May 1948 makes interesting reading. The headline figures are as follows
GLASGOW COMMON GOOD FUND
Receipts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £ 147,988
Expenditure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £ 101,253
Balance of Fund including capital value of assets. . . . . . . . . . . . . £ 952,728
Using a multiplier of 23.5 to account for inflation (RPI figures from Office for National Statistics) gives 2005 figures of
Receipts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£ 3,477,718
Expenditure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £ 2,379,445
Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £ 22,389,108
Compare these figures with the figures from the City Council's 2004/5 Accounts.
receipts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £ 839,000 (24% of what they were in 1948)
expenditure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £ 1,173,000 (49% of what was spent in 1948)
balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £10,621,000 (47% of the value in 1948)
In addition, the 1949 paper contains the following comment
"In addition on the Glasgow Municipal Transport Undertaking, variously valued at between £6,000,000 and £10,000,000 forms, by statute, a part of the Common Good. The undertaking has, up to the present, paid over to the Common Good by way of surpluses on annual working sums amounting to almost £1,500,000"
So this adds another £ 141 to 235 million to 1948 value at current prices giving a total current value of £ 153m - £ 257m, some 15 to 25 times larger than the reality in 2005.
It would be useful to find out what happened to the revenue from the Glasgow Municipal Transport Undertaking which contributed so much to the value of the Common Good Fund in 1948.
Correspondent
various