Picture of Loch Lomond
AMIDS People -- Investment Zone

Glasgow City Region
Investment Zone

The Glasgow City Region Investment Zone will turbo-charge the Region’s innovation economy, building on existing strengths in Space, Semiconductors and Maritime.

Announced in June 2023, following a joint selection process by the UK and Scottish Governments, Glasgow City Region’s Investment Zone is expected to generate around £300 million of initial private sector investment and support 7,000 – 10,000 jobs. It is focused on the Advanced Manufacturing sector and the Zone’s geography is across Glasgow City Region.

The programme includes:

  • Six ambitious projects across the Space, Semiconductors and Maritime sectors.
  • A dedicated Tax Site, at AMIDS and Glasgow Airport.
  • Supporting initiatives on skills, business support and an innovation investment fund – ensuring benefits are spread across the entire Region.

The Sub-Sectors and Projects

Funding: £36.1 million

Private Sector Investment: £71 million

The Region is a world-leader in satellite manufacturing and is the second largest supplier of small satellites in the world, after California, with around 30 companies in the Region.

The IZ is funding two complementary space projects:

  • Spacecraft Advanced Manufacturing and Testing Centre (Skyrora): boosting rocket-building capacity and providing additional launch capacity for more rockets to go into space, many of which carry satellites.
  • Platform for Scaling Responsive Space Systems Research, Innovation & Manufacturing (PRISM): a collaboration of 20 partner organisations delivering new, advanced infrastructure to support growth in the Space sector, and supporting collaboration across Government, Industry and Academia.

Funding: £65.9 million

Private Sector Investment: £125 million

The UK has a niche and highly specialised semiconductor sector, named one of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)’s “5 technologies of tomorrow” due to its underpinning role in quantum, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and telecoms.

The IZ is funding three semiconductor projects:

  • Laser Supply Chain and Advanced Packaging: establishing a world-class open-access semiconductor facility, with end-to-end infrastructure, to enable increased commercialisation and scale-up.
  • National Centre for Advanced Semiconductor Packaging (NCASP): creating a national centre for manufacturing scale-up, including open-access capital equipment, for photonics and power electronics.
  • Advanced Manufacturing Capacity for Sensor Technology (Neuranics): creating a state-of-the-art nanofabrication centre, to enable full fabrication of magnetic sensors in the UK.

Funding: £20 million

Private Sector Investment: £67.4 million

Building on Glasgow’s maritime heritage, the IZ is funding one maritime project:

  • Maritime Supply Chain Innovation Centre: supporting the development of the Maritime Supply Chain Innovation Centre (MSCIC) including open-access facilities, shared resources, and critical maritime infrastructure.

Find out more about the six projects.

The Tax Site and Enabling Support

The Investment Zone’s £24 million Tax Site spans 112Ha at the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland (AMIDS) and Glasgow Airport.

The Tax Site is designed to unlock significant investment and drive jobs and growth across the Region, through a range of tax reliefs which incentivise businesses within the advanced manufacturing sector to locate to the site.

These incentives include:

  • Non-domestic rates relief
  • Enhanced Capital allowance
  • Land & Building Transaction Tax relief
  • Enhanced Structures and Buildings Allowance
  • Employer National Insurance Contributions relief

It will also provide additional benefits to the local economy of up to £162 million through the retention of additional non-domestic rates generated within the Investment Zone over 25 years, across the Tax Site and two additional designated locations for the retention of non-domestic rates – at Eurocentral in North Lanarkshire, and across areas of the Clyde Corridor in Glasgow and South Lanarkshire.

Part of the Investment Zone’s Enabling Support Programme, the Investment Fund is supporting the ongoing growth of the Advanced Manufacturing sector in the Region.

It will support key inward investment opportunities that can enhance and complement the established business base.

The programme includes business support through dedicated ringfenced funding to accelerate business growth and workforce readiness.

Key initiatives include:

  • Tailored Business Support: Providing supply chain companies with targeted resources and expertise to innovate, scale, and commercialise new technologies.
  • Skills Development: Training and upskilling workers for emerging needs in high-growth industries of semiconductors, space, and maritime sectors.

Objectives

The objectives for the Glasgow City Region Investment Zone (GCR IZ) build on the wider aspirations of the Regional Economic Strategy (RES).

  1. Build on strengths of the Region’s current and emerging cluster specialisms
  2. Grow new and existing R&D focused firms which are geared to take advantage of local academic expertise
  3. Create a significant number of mid to high skilled ‘good’ jobs
  4. Generate short and longer-term private sector investment in the Region’s cluster specialisms – both through existing firms and wider supply chain development
  5. Align with existing investment within the Region e.g. City Deal, Innovation Districts / Innovation Accelerator, UK Shared Prosperity Fund
  6. Maximise the impacts through enhancing connections to existing clusters
  7. Facilitate the development / regeneration of under-developed land and assets within the Region
  8. Extends the benefit to the whole Region including developing options for a IZ skills programme for local residents and a regional investment fund.

Related News