Last month, STP’s Chief Officer, Kimberley Guthrie, joined one of the panels at the Scottish Property Federation’s Annual Conference, to discuss the topic Working Together – Partnerships for Growth in our Towns & Cities. Alongside Kimberley, the panel comprised:
- Jonathon Guthrie, Director for Strategic Partnerships at the Robertson Group;
- Daniel Johnson, Labour’s spokesperson on the Economy, Business, and Fair Work;
- Lorna Edwards, Senior Manager – Strategic Projects and Waterfront at Dundee City Council and;
- Sarah Baillie, Partner in Planning & Infrastructure Consenting at Addleshaw Goddard.
Together the panelists discussed the barriers to collaboration, partnership, and working together in the contexts of our towns and cities, with the aim of signposting effective examples from across Scotland. Here are a few of the key contributions Kimberley made at the event, on behalf of Scotland’s Towns Partnership.
Cross sector working
Each sector has its own accountability to ensure closer collaboration and productive partnership working – and each has its own role to play. For example, the Public Sector – namely local authorities – have sight of the ‘bigger picture’; it is their job to pull all the various elements together to make projects work.
In essence, they are the custodians of place. But the Private Sector’s role, while supportive, is equally as important. They bring confidence to local government projects by ensuring that investments deliver and make the right returns. To do this effectively, it’s vital that they fully understand the wider ambitions of local authorities and use their own expertise to maximise the opportunity.
Through joint and innovative funding; thinking more commercially when managing public sector finance with private sector capital (a role that the Scottish National Investment Bank can play to enable key projects); we can deliver more successful developments within our town and city centres.
Town Centre Living
At Scotland’s Towns Partnership, we’re working with Scottish Futures Trust on a Pan-Local Authority working model to drive town centre living. The aim is to take sites that may not be deemed an attractive investment proposition on their own and leverage them as an aggregated offer to define a longer-term, viable development opportunity.
Recognising these sites in our towns, understanding the developer’s position on what’s required to make them a viable investment, and delivering what users of each place actually want, could provide us with a renewed approach to how we develop and deliver town centre living across Scotland. More on this work will be announced soon.
What success looks like
There are lots of great examples of collaboration happening across Scotland. But to name just a few…
- South Street Development in Elgin: A place that comprises housing, enterprise, education, retail, and social space – all of which are appreciated by local people. To deliver this, there was a high degree of cross sector partnership between Moray Council, private developers, Scottish Government, UK Government, University of Highlands and Islands, and the Moray Growth Deal. This collaboration combined with a joint funding approach created a purposeful and useful development for the town.
- Abbey Quarter, Paisley: This £12.2m redevelopment of the former Arnott’s Department Store, brought back to life a site that had been derelict for years due to a viability gap. Spearheaded by Renfrewshire Council in their role as ‘custodians of place’, the local authority created a limited liability partnership with the developer to leverage land holdings and financial support. The result is a substantial increase to town centre living, via effective public and private sector partnership.
How can the Scottish Government help?
Stakeholders involved in Scotland’s towns still face numerous issues – especially in relation to town centre living. The Government could help to expedite some of these by taking us right back to the New Futures for Scotland’s Towns recommendations and by delivering fiscal reform to level the playing field on VAT in town, versus out of town.
To find out more about the work Scotland’s Towns Partnership does to forge a new future for Scotland’s places – visit scotlandstowns.org.
