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Chamber and committees

Question reference: S6W-22090

  • Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
  • Date lodged: 11 October 2023
  • Current status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2023

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what support it has provided for town centre regeneration in each year since 1999.


Answer

The Scottish Government has a long history of providing support for town centre regeneration and continues to provide a strong policy framework, with clear priorities and actions to help facilitate and deliver change. This includes our world leading Town Centre First Principle, which was first developed in Scotland.

Our regeneration strategy published in 2011 reflects our support for town centres as a central part of community life and as the backbone of Scotland’s economy. We further strengthened our ambitions for town centres through the Town Centre Action Plan in 2013 and re-affirmed our commitment in collaboration with COSLA for the Town Centre Action Plan 2 published in April 2022. TCAP 2 is a call to action and sets out some of the ways in which we can all seek to do our part, locally and nationally.

The Scottish Government supports Scotland’s Towns Partnership (STP) as the ‘go to’ body for town centre advice and support. STP works collaboratively with the Scottish Government, local authorities, and other stakeholder groups on engagement, implementation, and delivery of short and long-term town centre strategies.

Town centre regeneration in Scotland has also been backed by multiple investment programmes. Our Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP) established in 2021/22, backed with over £300m over 5 years makes an important contribution to supporting ambitions for place, community regeneration, town centres and 20-minute neighbourhoods. PBIP is also complemented by the low carbon Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme (VDLIP) and Regeneration and Capital Grant Fund (RGCF), now in its tenth year. Information on the RCGF funding awarded is publicly available.

Though by no means exhaustive, previous programmes that have supported town centre regeneration since 1999 also include:

The Town Centre Regeneration Fund

2009-2015

£60m

The Town Centre Housing Fund

2013-2014

£2.7m

The Town Centre Empty Homes Fund

2015

£4m

Town Centre Communities Capital Fund

2015

£1.7m

Towards Affordable Town Housing

2015

£6.75m

The Town Centre Fund

2019-2021

£68m