Scottish Executive regeneration strategy will mean two new development corporations

The Scottish Executive has announced plans to set up two new urban regeneration companies - in Inverclyde and Irvine Bay – as part of a concerted bid to tackle bad housing, deprivation and transform hectares of derelict and contaminated land.

The Executive's proposals are spelled out in a regeneration strategy, just published, which stresses the need to develop sustainable communities in some of the country's most run-down areas.

Central to the strategy is the creation of three new priority areas – the Clyde Corridor, Inverclyde and across Ayrshire – where the Executive will ensure more focussed and collaborative action by councils, public agencies and the private sector.

In a bid to kick-start these proposals Scottish Enterprise is providing £10m to market and develop some 13 strategic development sites with prime riverside locations along the A8 corridor from Port Glasgow to Greenock.

First Minister Jack McConnell said: "Scotland needs a joined-up, imaginative approach to economic, community regeneration if we are to grow more businesses, tackle unemployment blackspots and support enterprising ideas."

In addition, the Executive has decided to allocate some £24m to local authorities in Dundee, Glasgow, North and South Lanarkshire to help clear up concentrations of vacant and derelict land currently inhibiting regeneration.

View further information on the Scottish Executive's regeneration strategy here.

Roger Milne

3 March 2006