Glasgow City Deal to invest £740m by 2025 as spending speeds up

The Glasgow City Region City Deal is set to accelerate spending by pumping more than £740 million into infrastructure over the next five years.

The Glasgow City deal funded a 50m programme to upgrade Glasgows crumbling quay walls along the Clyde. Picture: John Devlin

The ambitious plans will see the programme, which is one of the largest of its kind in the UK, invest more than four times its total spend since 2014.

Over the next five years the City Deal expects to build more than 7,700 homes and reclaim, redevelop or assemble 400 hectares of land, with more than 80 hectares of vacant land brought back into use.

Last year marked the five-year milestone of the £1.13 billion deal, which includes a total of 27 transformation projects and has awarded £50m worth of contracts to local businesses to date.

The eight participating councils have so far completed 16 projects and spent more than £180m.

'Powerhouse of the North'

Susan Aitken, chair of the Glasgow City Region cabinet and leader of Glasgow City Council said: “Over 20 major and transformative infrastructure projects are either underway or due to commence; we have worked with almost 20,000 unemployed citizens and supported 4,500 back into sustainable employment; transport and connectivity is improving.

“We will generate a permanent uplift in our gross value added and are set to leverage billions in private sector investment, with the record-breaking investment by Barclay’s on the banks of the Clyde underpinned by City Deal investment.

“We look forward to the next five years where we can really build on the potential of the City Deal and ensure we have the levers to transform the Glasgow City region into the real powerhouse of the North.”

Projects currently underway include the creation of a neighbourhood at Sighthill in Glasgow. The scheme, the largest UK urban regeneration scheme of its type outside of London, is re-connecting an area the size of 60 football pitches to the city centre.

A new park is due to open at Sighthill later in the year, with future developments set to include an “iconic” bridge over the M8 motorway.

Greenlaw Business Centre in East Renfrewshire is scheduled to formally open in 2020, providing modern office accommodation and support for small businesses, along with Europe’s first “smart canal”, which is intended to mitigate flood risk and unlock 110 hectares in north Glasgow for investment, regeneration and 3,000 new homes.

Work is also underway to develop a 52-hectare site next to Glasgow Airport into a centre for manufacturing research and innovation which is estimated to create thousands of jobs and boost Scotland’s manufacturing sector by £535m annually. The site is scheduled for completion by early 2021.