{"id":866293,"date":"2025-08-19T21:12:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T02:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/19\/review-of-city-building-glasgow-uncovers-significant-issues\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T21:12:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T02:12:37","slug":"review-of-city-building-glasgow-uncovers-significant-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/19\/review-of-city-building-glasgow-uncovers-significant-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of City Building Glasgow uncovers \u2018significant\u2019 issues"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"River_Clyde_2021_2.webp\"<\/p>\n

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A review into a building firm jointly owned by Glasgow City Council, prompted by whistleblower allegations, has uncovered \u201csignificant\u201d issues within its business.<\/span><\/p>\n

The council will be handed the review of City Building Glasgow (CBG) on Thursday (21 August) and will consider a number of recommendations.<\/span><\/p>\n

It comes after the council ordered an audit report of the contractor\u2019s 2022-23 accounts.<\/span><\/p>\n

CBG is incorporated as a limited liability partnership \u2013 a joint venture between the council and social housing company Wheatley Group.<\/span><\/p>\n

When multiple compliance matters were uncovered, the council appointed an external legal firm to undertake a forensic investigation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The audit \u201cidentified a significant deficiency in respect of the overall control environment within the business\u201d, according to a council report.<\/span><\/p>\n

This prompted the council to establish a partnership steering group with Wheatley to review the firm and ensure it was \u201cfit for purpose\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The joint review, which will be submitted to the council\u2019s administration committee on Thursday, has identified a number of areas for improvement relating to audit, board governance, HR and procurement.<\/span><\/p>\n

It says: \u201cOne of the key issues of concern identified by the external legal firm\u2019s investigation was in relation to<\/span> City Building\u2019s executive management<\/span><\/a> and its culture towards the role of audit and governance, which was found to be undermining normal audit processes and relationships.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The review adds that \u201csignificant compliance matters covering key governance, procurement and HR practices\u201d have been discovered.<\/span><\/p>\n

A new executive director has been appointed to instil \u201ca culture of good governance and compliance within City Building, demonstrating improved operational effectiveness and improved financial efficiency\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

It has led to the establishment of an audit committee and a new code of conduct for CBG board members, an improved employee development programme and the formation of a new subcontractor framework to improve procurement practices.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe establishment of the audit committee is an important milestone in enhancing the ethical culture within CBG and in demonstrating an improved approach to governance, transparency and compliance,\u201d the report says.<\/span><\/p>\n

The review also concludes that the current clause in the joint-venture agreement stopping CBG from carrying out housebuilding should be removed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis proposed change to the LLP agreement will provide greater flexibility for City Building to support Wheatley\u2019s capital projects, helping to sustain and enhance the City Building workforce, specifically making available critical training opportunities for apprentices working on new-build construction,\u201d the report to councillors says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2017, the joint venture has seen \u00a31bn of projects go through City Building, including the building of five primary schools and four nurseries, as well as major upgrades to Mitchell Library, City Chambers, Kelvin Hall and Concert Hall.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, newly published accounts by the firm, which was ranked in the CN100 index of top contractors<\/span> five years ago<\/span><\/a>, showed an operating loss of \u00a367,000 in the 12 months to 31 March 2024 \u2013 an improvement on the \u00a314.5m decline it posted the year before.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, turnover dropped from \u00a3162m to \u00a3154m.<\/span><\/p>\n

Glasgow City Council and CBG have been contacted for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Nicola Harley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A review into a building firm jointly owned by Glasgow City Council, prompted by whistleblower allegations, has uncovered \u201csignificant\u201d issues within its business. The council will be handed the review of City Building Glasgow (CBG) on Thursday (21 August) and will consider a number of recommendations. It comes after the council ordered an audit report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":866294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4299,661],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-866293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-building","8":"category-review"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}