Sturgeon launches £25m fund for disadvantaged areas

The Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF), developed with local authorities, will provide financial support to intiatives delivering “large-scale positive improvements” to deprived areas.

It will be open to all 32 local councils, as well as urban regeneration companies.

Ms Sturgeon said during a visit to Govan in Glasgow: “The development of this fund is a great example of how Scotland’s public bodies can work in partnership to deliver initiatives that help to create more jobs for Scottish people, while bringing our communities closer together and injecting new life into deprived and rundown areas.”

She added: “Community involvement is integral to the success of the design and delivery of local economic and social regeneration initiatives.”

The cash pot will mainly support urban and rural areas that suffer from high levels of deprivation and disadvantage.

David O’Neill, president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla), said the fund would deliver long-term strategic and transformational change.

He said: “Communities want resources focused on delivering large-scale regeneration projects, which can also deliver wider impacts of job creation, clearing up land, as well as regenerating buildings and infrastructure.

“I look forward to seeing the outcomes of this fund at local level throughout Scotland over the next few years.

“Scotland’s identity is to a large extent local, and so are people’s expectations,” he said. “This fund will enable local authorities to deliver local communities’ expectations of the places they want to live in and be proud of for years to come.”