Reinvent
Since devolution, we have made massive investment in transforming Scotland and its infrastructure. Our record is a strong one.
2. Investing in transformation - the foundation of our new approach
The Executive has a range of policies, programmes and funding streams to support the economic, physical, social or environmental transformation of specific places across the country. Since devolution, we have made massive investment in transforming Scotland and its infrastructure. Our record is a strong one. For example, since devolution we have:
- Increased our total capital investment from just under £1.4 billion to just over £2.8 billion each year;
- Invested over £4 billion in Scotland's housing fabric and services - including £1.5 billion to deliver more than 41,000 affordable homes;
- Invested some £3.6 billion in improving and upgrading Scotland's water infrastructure;
- Provided funding to Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise for investment of over £500 million in improving the economic competitiveness of specific locations across the country;
And:
- From investing £300 million a year in total transport spend at devolution, we are now allocating over £1 billion each year, rising to nearly £1.4 billion by 2007/08.
- Over the last 10 years the Public Private Partnership ( PPP) programme has delivered £2.7 billion of investment in 3 major hospitals, 130 new or refurbished schools, 3 further education colleges, 9 water and sewerage schemes, 3 roads and a prison. Another £2.9 billion of investment is in the pipeline;
- From 2001 to 2004 we have targeted over £300 million at the regeneration of our most deprived communities through the Social Inclusion Partnership ( SIP) 2 and Better Neighbourhood Services Fund ( BNSF) 3 programmes, to bring about real improvements in our hardest-pressed communities. These programmes have now been merged into the new Community Regeneration Fund ( CRF) which will invest a further £318 million in targeted regeneration over the 3 years to 2007/08; and
- From 2002 to 2005 we have invested £90 million in the Cities Growth Fund to support key growth projects in Scotland's six cities. A further £82 million will be provided over the period 2006-08.
And the recently published Infrastructure Investment Plan outlines our key plans for future investment in infrastructure, including:
- £3 billion capital investment over 10 years in Scotland's transport infrastructure;
- £3 billion to meet the target of renewing and modernising 300 schools by 2009;
- One of the largest ever investment programmes in our water industry; and
- Over £420 million over 3 years to improve and modernise Scotland's colleges and universities.
However, although we have already made a real and positive difference to Scotland, there is no room for complacency. Individual policies and funding streams will not of themselves deliver the full range of lasting outcomes to which we aspire. It will take time and sustained effort and investment to deal with the legacy of decline we inherited at devolution, and to bring about lasting transformation and renewal across the country. Nor, in themselves, do our investment programmes amount to a genuinely strategic and integrated regeneration policy for Scotland in the 21st century.
So, in this statement, we aim to lay down a framework for our future action; and to create the conditions for real synergies between our specific policies, between public and private sector investment and between opportunity and need. We need to ensure more effective practical alignment between the interventions of the Executive and its agencies, the activity of local government and other public sector partners, and action by the private sector. And we have to learn from experience, here in Scotland and elsewhere.
The challenge for us all is to make our cities, towns and neighbourhoods genuinely attractive places to live, work and invest in. We know that, to meet this challenge, we need to step up the pace. The statement signals the Executive's determination to do just that.
Bilbao - public/private partnership |
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 Metropolitan Bilbao, as with many other former industrial cities in Europe, was traditionally dependent on heavy manufacturing such as steel making and ship building for its economic vitality. It was suffering from major environmental problems related to its heavy industries, including large brownfield and port areas that required clean up and re-use. In the 1990s the Strategic Plan for Bilbao was launched. This consensus building plan was co-ordinated and implemented by an independent, non-profit, public-private partnership, Bilbao Metropoli-30.
The quality of the urban environment is improving dramatically and the derelict industrial areas in the inner city are today 'opportunity hubs' for new urban developments - the most notable example being a riverfront development on brownfield land whose centrepiece is the Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim Museum. Opened in 1997, the silver clad building dominates the old port and central core of the city. A new footbridge across the harbour and visually stunning underground stations expand the public space, with the transformed infrastructure providing new opportunities for citizens and businesses alike. |
Critical Success Factors
The experience of regeneration in Scotland and the rest of the UK over the last two or three decades reveals a number of challenges for sustainable regeneration. Appendix A outlines some of that experience and some of those lessons. One message is very clear: there is no single 'one-size-fits-all' approach to regeneration. The success and sustainability of regeneration initiatives depends crucially on the specific circumstances in which they take place. However, the experience and lessons of regeneration in Scotland and the rest of the UK point to a number of common critical success factors. These include:
- Strong leadership and dedicated support - focus and impetus are essential, and regeneration initiatives cannot be treated as an add-on to the 'day job';
- The existence of economic opportunity - investment, whether public or private, cannot bring about sustained transformation where there is no opportunity for the market to work;
- Investing in people's education, learning and skills to enable them to benefit from the employment opportunities being created;
- Clarity on the outcomes to be achieved - where partners have divergent views of the big picture, the prospects of success are severely compromised;
- Clear political commitment from key players - otherwise the technical, financial, economic and legal complexities that are inevitably involved in major regeneration initiatives may prove insurmountable;
- Support from, and involvement of, communities - change imposed on communities, rather than developed with their input, is rarely successful beyond the short term;
- An approach which does not focus solely on the physical or economic aspects of the proposed transformation, but also on strengthening the local (and surrounding) communities;
- A commitment to good design quality and creating public spaces and green spaces which people want to use;
- Effective partnership working - it is rarely the case that one organisation or agency can undertake all the required activity;
- Alignment and co-ordination of public and private sector interventions;
- Active encouragement of private sector participation - which means providing private sector partners with clarity and certainty about the sustained commitment of the public sector to the initiative and lifting barriers to private sector involvement; and
- A long timescale - regeneration does not happen overnight.
These factors, and these principles, will underpin and guide our approach to regeneration in Scotland.