March Director’s Blog
City Deal Update
Our City Deal Gateway Review Challenge session took place this month with colleagues from both governments. It was very positive and we hope to have confirmation of a successful Gateway Two in the coming weeks, releasing the next £300 million tranche of City Deal funding.
With this in mind, it is unsurprising that our City Deal programme continues to progress at pace, with many benefits already being delivered to local people, businesses and communities.
Last month I updated on the new £64.5 million City Deal project which will benefit local businesses and support more inward investment.
We recently participated in National Apprenticeship Week, reporting on the many apprenticeship positions and employment opportunities for young people being delivered through our City Deal projects – thanks to community benefits commitments we ask for from our contractors. Over £159 million worth of City Deal contracts have been awarded to local companies.
It is also worth noting that since the opening of the Partick – Govan bridge six month ago, there have been over 600,000 crossings (500,000+ pedestrian and 100,000+ cyclist), with the 1,000,000 crossings milestone likely to be reached in June or July this year.
5G Innovation Region
A number of updates on our exciting 5G Smart and Connected social places programme…
Firstly, we are absolutely delighted to have secured a one-year funding extension from the UK Government Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
Glasgow will share a further funding pot of £7 million along with other 5G Innovation Regions, building on the original £36 million programme that kicked off in 2023.
To date the Smart and Connected Social Places programme of six projects has focused on:
- keeping people safe, well, and socially connected in their homes and local communities;
- boosting 5G connectivity across the Region and providing residents with access to accurate date on their mobile phone coverage and signal strength; and
- driving innovation in services to people through a new Innovation Fund for SMEs and the third sector.
An exercise to map mobile phone connectivity is underway across the Region and will give residents access to a free, easy-to-use tool to understand which mobile networks provide the fastest speeds outside their homes, businesses or other locations of interest.
The largest mobile phone coverage survey in Scotland is being carried out with the assistance of bin lorries which are hosting equipment which is gathering data about the strength of signal from the UK’s four mobile operators, street by street while people’s bins are being emptied. Residents will be able to see the signal strength that EE, Vodafone, Three and O2/Virgin Media offer within a 30-metre radius outside of their homes/businesses.
The study will help to identify areas that have little or no mobile coverage and data will be used to lobby providers to make wireless technology improvements to allow individuals and organisations to make informed decisions about which providers to choose.
We will soon be making this data available to local residents across the Region.
The Innovation Fund is supporting 11 local projects that address real world problems in Glasgow City Region, with funding between ten thousand and one hundred thousand pounds. Every one of the 11 projects has demonstrated innovative technologies and approaches that will go on to improve services, experiences and, ultimately, quality of life for those living across Glasgow City Region and the wider UK.
You can watch our playlist featuring case studies of the 11 Innovation Fund projects on the Region’s YouTube channel.
The programme extension will focus on two key Smart Social Housing and Social care projects which include connected sensors to monitor damp, mould, and heating in social homes, digital technologies, such as smart speakers, to support care and wellbeing services for vulnerable people and improve digital inclusion.
And finally, last week we held an event to showcase our 5G projects at the SECC, with exhibitions featuring the projects and a series of expert panels.
The event was a great success, attended by around 180 delegates from across the innovation and telecoms industry and business and public sectors.
AI Growth Zone
Following approval by Cabinet, at the end of last month we submitted an expression of interest to the UK Government for the AI Growth Zone opportunity.
Glasgow City Region is unmatched in the advantages it offers to a growing AI sector – significantly lower operating costs, lower carbon intensity, lower data latency and abundant renewable energy.
The UK Government states that AI Growth Zones and data centres can stimulate investment, re-use brownfield land, decarbonise heat, create high-quality jobs and support communities.
We have worked with member councils, data centre operator DataVita, the University of Strathclyde and Scottish Power Energy Networks on a submission that frames a positive Regional proposition.
The UK Government is expected to launch a full site selection process in spring 2025.
National Wealth Fund
We continue to engage with UK Government colleagues in relation to the National Wealth Fund opportunity.
This is a long-term strategic partnership, and we are keen to have a pipeline of projects of different scale and type, to take forward with a mix of advice and / or lending sought from government.
We have been discussing an initial selection of projects put forward from member councils, SPT, Clyde Gateway and including some projects from the Regional Economic strategy.
CHIA Toolkit
Our Capital Investment Health Impact Assessment (CHIA) toolkit was developed to embed health and equity in capital investment decision making processes, supporting a health in all policies approach.
Launched in December 2024 and funded by the Health Foundation as part of the Economies for Healthier Lives Programme, it is now being piloted on seven Glasgow City Region projects to test and evaluate the effectiveness of the process.
The toolkit was designed to influence and support business case development involving various steps and starting with a stakeholder workshop to identify the key impacts of a given proposal and subsequent steps to capture and prioritise those impacts and gather further evidence to inform recommendations for statutory impact assessments and support business case development.
Feedback from project teams on stakeholder workshop held so far has been positive with participants suggesting the process was useful to strengthen relationships and improve awareness of the project proposals, helping identify areas where action needs to be prioritised.
Further project workshops are planned.
