In our manifesto for this year’s council elections, the SNP pledged to undertake a programme of democratic renewal for Glasgow. We want to change the council’s relationship with citizens by ensuring that they understand their rights and entitlements and are actively encouraged to use them to get the kind of services and the kind of city they want for themselves, their families and the places they live.

As part of this commitment, we’ll shortly launch a public consultation on a new City Charter for Glasgow, which will clearly set out what citizens are entitled to expect from their Council and enshrine the City Government’s commitment to respect and value the diversity and human rights of Glasgow’s people.

The consultation will not only help to the final shape and content of the charter document, it will also seek the views of Glaswegians about how the council ensures that the values and commitments set out in the Charter are embedded in every aspect of our work.

Glasgow has had a succession of charters in its history, going at least as far back as its founding as a burgh by William I of Scotland in 1175. That City Charter pledged to the ‘bishop of Glasgow, and to each of his successors, for ever, to have a burgh at Glasgow, with a market on Thursday’ and protected the resident burgesses from ‘any one unjustly to trouble or molest them or their chattels or inflict any injury or damage upon them’.

That’s actually not a bad starting point for the new City Charter: we believe it’s particularly important that protecting fundamental human rights and equality are the key principle behind the council’s work. The way that local services are designed and delivered will continue to change in the years ahead. It’s vital that people - their rights and the way their lives are affected by their interactions with the council - are at the heart of those changes.

The new Charter will also focus on participation and engagement, giving Glasgow’s citizens the right to be meaningfully involved in planning and designing the services they use, and to have their views about the city listened and responded to by their council. It will recognise that the knowledge and expertise of citizens about the places they live and work is the best resource we have for making those places better.

The consultation will go live on the council’s website within the next few days: look out for details on social media and in the Evening Times, and make sure you have your say.

This week will see the first in our planned series of City Chambers Summits on key policy areas for the city. The first one will focus on homelessness and rough sleeping – an issue of growing concern for many Glaswegians.

Homelessness is a complex problem, with no single solution. That’s why the City Government is bringing together individuals organisations who have knowledge and understanding of the scale and nature of different aspects of the city’s homelessness problem, with the aim of developing a shared plan for action.

A supply of available homes is obviously vital – but it’s not the only answer. People end up on the streets for all sorts of reasons and therefore need different kinds of support to help them get to the point where they are not only able move into a new home, but also to maintain a tenancy in the long term. For some homeless people, help with sorting out social security and legal issues might be enough to help them on their way. Others will need longer term support to manage mental health problems or deal with addictions before they will be able to live in their own permanent home again.

That’s why we want to get everyone round the table, contributing their ideas and playing their part in providing a service that reaches as many homeless people as possible, in the way that best helps them. Housing associations, legal services, night shelters, social work staff, charities and social enterprises, the NHS: these and others all have a part to play.

Homeless rough sleepers are perhaps our most vulnerable citizens: their lives are put at risk on a daily basis. Bringing about an end to rough sleeping is a social justice challenge that the council can’t meet on its own.

We need a team approach, working in partnership with others and, above all, listening to homeless people themselves about the pressures that have brought them to that point and the help they need to change their lives for the better.