Chamber and committees

As noted in the answer to S6W-06239, we do not hold detailed information centrally on those local approaches and so cannot provide the breakdown as requested. However, the latest information we have from councils indicates that almost 280,000 devices have been, or are in the process of being, rolled out to learners across Scotland.

Increasing the number of people living in town centres was one of the themes in the Scottish Government's Town Centre Action Plan (TCAP) and is also one of the recommendations made by the independent review of TCAP 'A New future for Scotland's Town Centres', which was published in February 2021. We are working with COSLA and partners to respond to the review with a revised action plan which will be published later in the spring.

The Draft national Planning Framework 4 contains a new policy, dedicated to town centre living, calling on planning authorities to proactively encourage and support opportunities for town centre living.

Our Housing to 2040 strategy puts ambitions for place at its core, investing in town centres and making it easier for homes to be at the heart of thriving communities by: investing in a rolling programme of demonstrator locations, providing expertise, resources and matched funding to help illustrate what future Town Centre Living and 20 minute neighbourhood models can look like. We will also continue to support partners through our Affordable Housing Supply Programme to deliver affordable housing in town centres where this has been identified as a strategic priority.

The National Strategy for Economic Transformation sets out our vision to make Scotland a world-class entrepreneurial nation that encourages, promotes and celebrates entrepreneurial activity in every sector of our economy. The strategy’s programme for action details how we will make Scotland one of the best countries to start and grow a business.

We will shortly publish a refreshed Town centre Action plan and City Centre Recovery Taskforce report to support action to revitalise town and city centres respectively, and we have provided £80 million Covid Economic Recovery funding to local authorities to consider the needs of local businesses, communities and households and to target support to maximise economic recovery in their areas.

In August we announced the Scotland Loves Local Programme. The aim is to encourage people to support their local businesses and communities, to build wealth in local communities, revitalising town, city and neighbourhood centres and increasing footfall.

We have provided over £1.85 million additional support for Business Improvement Districts since the start of the pandemic, with a further £500,000 for 2021-22.

The Scottish Government keeps all its policies and programmes under review to support delivery of the outcomes in the National Performance Framework.

Town centres are a key part of any local economy. Zero Waste Scotland provides a range of support and advice for community enterprises and businesses that are relevant to building circular economies within town centres. This includes partnering with Social Investment Scotland to deliver the £5m Social Enterprise Net Zero Transition Fund and delivery of the Circular Cities and Regions Programme and a business support programme for organisations exploring circular business models and services.

In addition, the Scottish Government will introduce a Community Wealth Building (CWB) Bill during the term of this parliament. The internationally recognised CWB model is a strategic approach to economic development that seeks to generate, direct and retain wealth in local communities by localising and shortening supply chains, helping local businesses to expand, creating new fair work opportunities, and placing more assets in the hands of local people and communities. CWB is about a systemic rewiring of how a local economy works and who it serves. Working in partnership with local authorities to develop local CWB action plans, we will encourage fostering of local, entrepreneurial businesses committed to reviving assets in our town centres by providing high quality goods, services and employment opportunities.

We will commission and support the Understanding Scottish Places (USP) consortium to review evaluation and data needs and share that understanding so that local partners can develop solutions that respond to the local circumstances.

In addition, the approach adopted via the Scotland Loves Local programme works with local partners to shape local opportunities that encourage and motivate people to change behaviours by thinking local first and supporting their local businesses and communities.

The independent review of the 2013 Town Centre Action Plan, A New future for Scotland’s Town Centres, was commissioned by Scottish Ministers and published in February 2021. We are working collaboratively with COSLA and partners to respond to the review with a revised action plan which will be published later in the spring, subject to approval from Ministers and COSLA.

The Scottish Government is establishing a group to help identify potential place demonstrator projects, including in towns and town centres, as part of our 5 year £325 million Place-Based Investment Programme.

Financing for retrofitting will be largely dependent on the ownership of the buildings.

There are a number of potential sources of financing including those referenced in our Infrastructure Investment Plan published in February 2021 and the latest Infrastructure Investment Plan Programme Pipeline Update from September 2021.

The latest available data from the Scottish Health Service Costs book shows that for 2019-20 the percentage of NHS expenditure spent on mental health services was 8.49%.

We are working with partners to deliver the 2021-22 Programme for Government commitment to ensure that at least 10% of frontline NHS spend goes towards mental health and 1% goes on child and adolescent services by the end of this Parliament.