Scottish Government

2. Development of the City Visions

Introduction

2.1 The purpose of this Chapter is to look at the strategic context underpinning the CGF and the Visions that form the justification for the selection of projects. We start by looking at the Fund itself.

The Cities Growth Fund

2.2 The CGF was launched in 2003, with the broad aim of supporting growth in Scotland's 6 cities that resulted in "clear, measurable improvements in each City-Region" (Scottish Executive, 2003a). It was underpinned by 2 other documents: the Review of Scotland's Cities (Scottish Executive, 2003b) and the Executive's policy document, Building Better Cities (Scottish Executive, 2003c). Initially £90 million was made available through CGF covering the period 2003-2006. In 2004 it was announced that the Fund would be extended for a further 2 years with an additional allocation of £83 million. Funding was allocated through the Local Government Finance settlement, with each city's allocation being proportional to its population. Table 2.1 shows the allocations to each of the cities for the 2 periods. It can be seen that:-

• Glasgow predominates, accounting for almost half of the Fund's total allocation;
• Edinburgh accounts for just over a quarter;
• Aberdeen and Dundee received around a tenth each;
• Inverness and Stirling each received relatively small amounts; and
• There is a good match between the percentage allocation to each city and its share of the 6 cities' total population ¹.

TABLE 2.1 Cities Growth Fund Financial Allocations

Note:
1. The column does not total to 100 because of rounding.
2. The populations are the 2005 mid-year estimates

2.3 Prior to the funds being allocated each city was, in collaboration with "local stakeholders", to draw up a City Vision. Amongst other things these were to:-

• Provide a long term vision for the city that the various agencies could then work towards;
• Identify the main strengths and weaknesses of the City; and
• Outline the measures needed to attain the vision.

2.4 The Executive also offered guidance on the preparation of the Visions (Scottish Executive, 2003a). Specifically they were to:-

• Derive from existing community planning processes and demonstrate strong links with Local Economic Forums and plans; and
• Demonstrate buy-in from all key players from the city and, importantly, the wider city region through consultation with Community Planning Partners in other areas.

2.5CGF monies were then to be spent upon projects that would enable the Vision to be attained, at least in part. The nature of projects to be supported through CGF was not specified in the Guidance (Scottish Executive, 2003a) although our discussions with the Executive confirmed that the intention was for CGF to primarily be a capital fund, although this only became clear to some cities as the process of drawing up the Vision and selecting projects got underway.

Examining the City Visions

Did the City Visions take a long term view of challenges facing the cities?

2.6 We carried out an examination of the City Visions to assess the extent to which they achieved the key objectives of setting out a long term vision for partners, identified the main strengths and weaknesses facing the city and identified key projects.

2.7 Without exception each of the Visions outlined a long term view of how the city might develop. By their nature Visions tend to be all things to all people: grandiose sentiments that it is very difficult to disagree with. The 6 City Visions were, in some respects, no exception in that many of the themes are similar (for example sustainability, inclusion and enterprise). Despite this, there were attempts to tailor elements of the Vision to the specific circumstances of the individual cities. Thus Aberdeen tries to build on its central position in the energy industry, Inverness threads its Highland location into the Vision and Dundee builds on its location as the focus of the city region.

Is there 'fit' between City Visions and CGF Projects?

2.8 Attainment of the Vision is, in part, to come through the implementation of the CGF projects. The individual city case studies make an assessment of the extent to which there is a Vision-project fit. In general terms this is based upon looking at what the Vision says and then:-

• Seeing if there are projects that match whatever themes the Vision includes; and
• Looking at the themes and seeing where they are being attained through CGF projects.

2.9 Clearly, given that the Visions are intended to be long term, some lack of "fit" is acceptable. For example, it might be that a Vision is so ambitious that some parts of it will only be attained in the long term. Accordingly CGF resources may have been allocated to only a part of the Vision. What is not, however, acceptable is when there are projects that do not seem to be related to any part of the Vision. Drawing on the case studies it seems that:-

• For Edinburgh and Glasgow there are no projects whose inclusion cannot be justified in terms of the Visions;
• In Aberdeen there are 3 parts of the Vision (private transport, improvements to public transport, especially rail links across the City and park and ride sites, and skills development) where there are no CGF projects;
• In Dundee the Vision talks about such things as an "Inclusive" and a "Learning City". It is unclear how the Waterfront project is contributing to these themes, if at all;
• In Inverness there is no explicit mention of community participation in the vision, however there is a project of this type in the selected projects; and
• In Stirling one of the smaller projects (repairs to Stephenson's Bridge) can arguably be classed as transport infrastructure which does not figure in the vision.

2.10 If it is accepted that the Visions are intended to provide a long term strategic direction for the cities then it would seem that there are few inconsistencies between the Visions and the project sets for most cities, in that the vast majority of the projects can be linked to explicit parts of the Vision. The one concern is Dundee where, at this stage, it is difficult to see what contribution the Waterfront project will make to some parts of the Vision.

2.11 This does not imply that in every City there are projects that contribute to all parts of the Vision. There are gaps. However, we would argue that the long term nature and grandiose nature of the visions makes such gaps inevitable especially for those cities that have relatively limited CGF allocations. Indeed it could be argued that if the funding is to be used in a way that will make a difference to the cities then there should be gaps as this would imply that the Vision is long term and is not capable of being attained through a limited amount of spend over a 3 year period.

How were the City Visions Developed?

2.12 Our review and consultations confirmed that the development of the Visions followed a broadly consistent process in each of the cities. In many areas they were building upon existing strategic development work undertaken through such agencies as the Community Planning Partnerships and such products as community plans, physical plans or transport studies. In Inverness and Stirling the City Vision was influenced by separate studies and conferences which explored the implications and challenges of being awarded City status. These processes involved key community planning partners (and others). However, generally they sat outwith the formal Community Planning processes.

2.13 In each of the cities there was a formal approval process to sign off the Vision with both city wide community planning partners and those in the wider city region (though for Highland Council and to a lesser extent Stirling Council these two groups of partners were one and the same). Only in Dundee were there issues in terms of buy in from community planning partners in the wider City Region. Both Angus and Perth and Kinross Councils refused to endorse a key element of the original City Vision: the desire to expand the boundaries of Dundee City into adjacent authorities, and expressed concern about the focus on the Central Dundee Waterfront project. These issues are examined in more detail in the Dundee City case study, ( Appendix 2).

2.14 The consultations also identified some issues around timescale. On the one hand, despite the tight timescale in which the Visions had to be prepared, there was often a foundation of analysis and thinking upon which they could be built. This is something recognised by the First Round Guidance where it was acknowledged that the cities would already have strategies. The CGF Visioning process was however seen as "an important opportunity to streamline existing strategic documents", (Scottish Executive, 2003a). By this we assume that the CGF Visions were to be developed from existing strategies, rather than being totally new.

2.15 At the same time a number of local authorities noted that the timing of the City Vision exercise was restrictive, coming as it did just ahead of the 2003 local government and Scottish Parliament elections. This led some authorities to adopt a cautious approach in identifying "new projects". In Dundee, for example, elected members insisted that the City Vision should not include new policy pledges or project ideas, given the politically sensitive make up of the Council.

Conclusion

2.16 Overall we feel that the Visions are taking a long term view of the development needs of their cities and city regions. There seems to be a good fit between most of the Visions and the selected projects, in that most projects can be justified in terms of the Vision. This does not mean to say that all elements of the Visions are reflected by CGF projects. Were this to be the case it might imply that the Visions were not long term but were more in the nature of short term spending plans. The one city where there seems to be a mismatch between the Vision and the CGF spend is Dundee where it is not clear, even in the project's economic impact assessment (Jones, Lang, Lasalle, 2006), how the project will contribute to such things as inclusion.