Glasgow is regularly named one of the top best global cities. In 2024 alone it has been ranked 30th in the world by Time Out magazine, beating the likes of Barcelona and San Francisco as a tourist destination; a top ten leading European city for cultural heritage, and Europe’s number one large city for our strategic approach to attracting overseas investment.

Closer to home, Glasgow has also been identified as one of the best cities in the UK to retire due to its amenities including the number of golf courses and cafes, and value for money.

Living well in Glasgow is obviously something to be envied and envied the world over. However, unfortunately not everyone has confidence to or accessing the amenities, activities, and services on offer.

Which is why Glasgow Life and Health and Social Care Partnership set up the Live Well programme to improve wellbeing and enable people to make new friends and get involved in the community.

An independent evaluation of Community Referral programme has shown it is helping Glaswegians to live healthier and happier lives. 93% report being better connected to people in their community; 96% were more physically active; 97% agreed that taking part in activities had helped them to feel less lonely or alone, and 100% reported feeling happier overall.

All Glaswegians have the right to enjoy healthy lives free from poverty and inequality in our communities which is why SNP Glasgow have funded the roll out of the initial pilot across the city. A life-changing service will now be delivered in Drumchapel and Anniesland, and the Garscadden and Scotstounhill wards, fully operational by summer 2025.

Known as social or green prescribing, this proven preventive approach to what have been called diseases of despair that have blighted some of Glasgow’s communities for decades, links people into the community and civic assets of the city.

While there was some hope that the new Labour Government would be helping to deliver on an anti-poverty agenda, the disappointing reality isn't that they're not a fellow protagonist in the fight, it's that they're antagonists. And disadvantaged communities will just have to take the medicine they prescribe.

We had heard before the general election that Labour had no plans to remove the cruel Tory two-child benefit cap, a measure which has been proven to directly contribute to child poverty. Sure enough, one of Labour's first acts was to block SNP attempts to have the cap removed, formally cementing it as the Labour two-child cap.

As disgraceful a decision as that was, the decision to continue to push children into poverty was known about in advance. What wasn't known in advance is the 'Reeves Freeze' that many pensioners will be feeling this winter.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced not long after the election that there was a £20 billion black hole in public finances (something she knew in advance) and used this as a justification to cut the Winter Fuel Allowance for most pensioners. A callous move that will leave many unable to afford to heat their homes following another energy prices rise a few weeks ago.

While money directly in people's pockets is the most valuable tool in tackling poverty, investing in communities is also key. Glasgow SNP lobbied heavily for this type of investment in Drumchapel. £15 million of Levelling Up funding was promised by the previous UK Government due to the persistence of colleagues, because to be blunt, without this dogged determination, a Tory Government would not have prioritised Drumchapel.

It is why it's almost inconceivable that Labour have put this money under review. The idea that Labour could treat Drumchapel with less respect than the Tories is shocking. The perverse irony is that this may be a rare occasion where London Labour listens to what has been said in Scotland, with Glasgow Labour MSP Paul Sweeney previously saying of the Drumchapel investment "I don't think it's the top priority".

The drumbeat of Labour austerity has been growing louder as we approach the budget. The £20 billion black hole has now apparently become a £40 billion hole. Let's be in no doubt, claims of astronomical funding gaps that need filled are a pretext for further cuts, particularly for the most vulnerable, with welfare likely to be cut. Something Rachel Reeves has long supported.

With just days to go till the UK budget, I have a simple challenge to Rachel Reeves. Deliver on the change platform that won you the election, end austerity now. When you deliver your budget, end austerity, lift people out of poverty and invest in the communities that need it most by taking three simple steps.

Remove the two-child cap and lift hundreds of thousands (millions?) of children out of poverty at the stroke of a pen.

Reverse the Reeves Freeze, reinstate the Winter Fuel Allowance and protect our pensioners.

Unfreeze the £15 million of Levelling Up money for Drumchapel. Don't continue the Westminster way of ignoring communities and ingraining generational poverty.

Glaswegians have a clear choice: be let down again by UK parties and their broken promises to Level Up and lift people out of poverty, or Live Well in Glasgow with the SNP.