November 2025 Director’s Blog: A Devolution Deal for Glasgow City Region
Great news at today’s State of the City Economy Conference in Glasgow as Scotland’s First Minister, John Swinney, announced that the Scottish Government will introduce new legislation in the next Parliament to enable us to establish a legal entity for the region that will provide the foundation for a devolution deal and further funding and powers to allow us to make decisions locally to grow the economy.
This is fantastic and a vital milestone in moving a forward with our ambitions.
It follows on from our ongoing engagement over the past two years with officers and politicians from both the Scottish and UK governments and our recent Devolution Deal proposal document which sets out our ask in more detail.
The new legislation will give us further legal and administrative powers, putting us on an equal footing with comparable regions – Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.
It will provide increased flexibility, enabling us to accelerate and streamline Regional plans and better facilitate working with the private sector, other public sector agencies and public finance institutions such as the National Wealth Fund and the Scottish National Investment Bank – giving us the power to borrow and invest.
We very much welcome the support of both governments and their recognition of what we have achieved so far as a partnership.
This isn’t about devolution to local authorities but about devolution to the place. This means all partners in the public, private, academic and third sectors will be involved in shaping our new structure and ensuring we develop a proposition which gets the very best for our economy.
The region already has the capability and the capacity to deliver. And our Programme Management Office is the largest regional team in Scotland, operating with the agility and focus of a start-up, with our Intelligence Hub providing the data and evidence to back up key policy and decisions.
Looking ahead, in the next six months we will work with all partners in the region and colleagues in Government to explore together what powers and funding are best delivered at the regional level.
Additional funding from the Scottish Government was also announced today to support us to shape these proposals.
This really is a fantastic step forward for further powers and funding for the region and one that will absolutely help us to grow the regional economy and our population of nearly two million people.