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Meeting of the Parliament 19 January 2012

19 Jan 2012 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Agenda for Cities

White, Sandra SNP Glasgow Kelvin Watch on SPTV

I thank John Park for his thought-provoking speech, which touched on issues that concern me, too. I will talk about community involvement and community benefit clauses to ensure that local people are employed when employment is available.

Like the cabinet secretary, I have lived in the centre of Glasgow, and I still live there. Members might not know that she and I shared a tenement building—perhaps she did not want to mention that. I am still there, but she is perhaps in a better place—I do not know.

As the Deputy First Minister said in her foreword to the Scottish Government’s document “Scotland’s Cities”,

“In their own right, our cities are recognised as centres of knowledge, innovation and culture.”

Through working collectively, they can build on those strengths.

Our cities are unique. As the cabinet secretary said, Glasgow is designated as a UNESCO city of music and Edinburgh is designated as a UNESCO city of literature. Scotland is the only country to have two UNESCO-designated creative cities, which is a unique and fantastic feat for which we not only in the Scottish Parliament but in Edinburgh and Glasgow should pat ourselves on the back.

It is apt that, as we speak, musicians across Glasgow are tuning up their instruments and readying themselves for the start of Celtic Connections, which kicks off today. More than 200 artists from around the globe will come together at more than 300 events across the city. Celtic Connections has been very successful for more than a decade, and the key to its success is effective collaboration in different genres of music. An analogy can be applied to the Government’s approach. If we stretch the analogy, we could look at the Scottish cities alliance as a band with the Scottish cities knowledge centre, the action teams, the cities investment network and the leadership group all being members that feed into the final production, or the delivery group.

The cabinet secretary mentioned the make-up of the Scottish cities alliance and the interactions in it to foster innovation and collaboration and drive economic growth. I think that all members would endorse her comments.

Framework 2 in the cities strategy identifies the crucial role of capital investment in achieving sustainable economic growth. Central to that aim is the need to improve the ability to secure finance. The document goes on to state:

“The Scottish Cities Alliance, supported by the Cities Investment Network will”

work to

“create and promote strong investment propositions aligned to distinctive City Visions”.

It will also be charged with packaging and marketing those

“in a coherent Scotland wide way that is clear and accessible for international investment funds”.

Both of those points are undoubtedly welcome. That is a great example of the joined-up approach that I have already mentioned. We need to ensure that it runs through the Scottish Government’s strategy for cities.

The Scottish Government proposes using innovative funding mechanisms to secure further access to finance. It proposes using mechanisms such as the national housing trust and tax increment financing—or TIF, as we normally call it—which I would like to concentrate on

As a mechanism, TIF secures funding against future business rate income that will be generated by the resulting development. It was developed in partnership with the Scottish Futures Trust, and Scotland’s local authorities have estimated that it could be worth hundreds of millions of pounds and could generate more than 17,000 new jobs. I am sure that we would all welcome that.

In Glasgow, a current example of TIF funding under consideration is the ambitious project for the Buchanan Galleries, which will see new retail companies and restaurants and vast improvements to Buchanan Street bus station and Queen Street station, all the way down into Buchanan Street. Things will be joined together all the way along to Cathedral Street. I know that concerns have been raised about that TIF and the proposal that has been put forward. One concern that business leaders have raised with me is the time that the proposal—or even a decision—is taking to come to fruition. Will the cabinet secretary indicate when she sees the proposed plans being settled?

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Meeting of the Parliament 19 January 2012

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