03 Jun 2015
City Deal projects are now spending and are appearing on the Public Scotland Contracts procurement portal for businesses to bid against.
On Friday morning at the City Chambers, Glasgow City Council Leader Gordon Matheson - in partnership with the seven local authorities of the city region - held the first procurement event to spread the word on the opportunities for business to get their share of the £1.13 billion City Deal project.
For those that have missed what City Deal is about, the region’s local authorities signed an agreement with the UK and Scottish Governments to deliver an increase in economic output and employment in return for a billion pounds of central government funding over a 20 year time frame.
Now that might sound like an awfully long time but because of the way the deal is financed almost all of the work will be put out for tender in the next five years. That makes City Deal procurement almost twice the size of the Commonwealth Games.
Most of the £1.13 billion is going on 20 major infrastructure projects ranging from £199.2m on public realm improvements and traffic management in Glasgow City Centre and North to £9m for M8 Corridor Access Improvements in North Lanarkshire.
Amongst the largest projects is an allocation of £144.3m for improved surface access to Glasgow Airport (that’s code for Glasgow Airport Rail Link reborn ). We have consistently argued for the Airport to be connected to the national rail system for a variety of reasons and so it’s very good news to see that in the project list.
Other large projects include two for the Clyde Waterfront with Glasgow City Council allocating £113.9 million and Renfrewshire Council £78.3m including a new river crossing. Clyde Waterfront is a slowly evolving success story with the Riverside Museum, the Hydro and the continuing development at both Pacific Quay and Glasgow Harbour all contributing. These two new allocations will help give the Waterfront some fresh vigour.
There’s also £94m allocated by North Lanarkshire Council for a Pan Lanarkshire Orbital Transport Corridor that also includes some investment in Motherwell town centre. South Lanarkshire is allocating £62.3m to invest in unlocking sites in Newton, Hamilton, Larkhall and East Kilbride.
Two especially interesting projects are a £51.4m investment by Renfrewshire in brownfield site development opportunities next to Glasgow Airport and a £14.2m investment by Inverclyde Council to extend the quay at Ocean Terminal to help accommodate the growing cruise liner trade in Greenock.
At the Chamber we will do everything we can to help make sure local businesses know what’s needed to get a share of this business. Please ask us if there are things you think we should be doing to help.
