New £64.5m Boost to Commercial and Industrial Premises

The leader of Inverclyde Council has welcomed a new £64.5 million fund to boost commercial and industrial premises across the Glasgow City Region.

Councillor Robert Moran says the funding is particularly crucial for areas like Inverclyde to help reverse decades of industrial decline.

As part of the funding process, Inverclyde council has submitted a longlist of potential locations to be considered for investment.

The Glasgow City Region Cabinet gave the green light to a new £64.5m City Deal project which will provide funding for all eight of the regions’ councils, including Inverclyde, to refurbish existing or to create new commercial or industrial premises.

The region’s £1.13 billion City Deal is funded by the UK and Scottish governments.

The new project is designed to tackle a key problem identified within the region’s economic strategy around a lack of available modern, high-quality commercial and industrial premises – due to the declining availability of stock and a lack of investment into new or existing spaces.

Councillor Moran said: “In Inverclyde especially, we have a real shortage of suitable commercial and industrial space that employers are looking for and this is also something that has been raised through the Inverclyde Socio-Economic Taskforce.

“We have suffered from decades of industrial decline, and we have long been calling for greater financial support to allow us to modernise existing premises and look at developing new sites, so this new City Deal investment is very welcome.

“Inverclyde is an area with so much untapped potential and there is so much we could do but we need that extra support from both governments and this additional funding is a positive first step in helping Inverclyde reach its full potential.”

In the coming months Inverclyde Council will progress towards a final shortlist of projects to submit, with a business case developed for each to evidence the funding requirement for inclusion in the final programme.

It is anticipated that the new funding will support a mixture of new build construction; refurbishment of existing buildings to improve the quality, energy efficiency and lifespan of existing premises; and enabling activity such as investment in infrastructure or sites to allow the private sector to build a commercial floorspace project through follow on investment.

The £64.5m initiative aims to contribute to addressing some key economic issues faced by the region which impact on local businesses, employers, investment into the region and the public sector.

It is also in response to research which found that there is not sufficient commercial and industrial premises available across the City Region to meet demand.

Each of the councils in the region are now in the early stages of developing potential projects within the programme.

Susan Aitken, chair of the Glasgow City Region Cabinet and leader of Glasgow City Council, said the investment would increase the amount of modern, high quality commercial and industrial properties available across the city region.

This article and image appeared in The Greenock Telegraph.