Scotland’s Towns Limited/Scotland’s Towns Partnership grant awarded: FOI release

Information requested

1.Annual funding totals
Please provide the total amount paid by the Scottish Government to Scotland’s Towns Limited / Scotland’s Towns Partnership for each financial year from 2018/19 – 2026/27

2. Funding agreements / governing documents
Please provide copies of the documents governing that funding for the same period, including any: grant offer letters, funding agreements, service level agreements, contracts, award letters, variation or extension letters.

3. Classification of funding
For each year (or each agreement), please confirm whether the funding was treated as: a grant, a contract payment for services, or another category.

Response

The information you requested has been provided below, and in the attached documents. This has been provided electronically as per your request.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption(s) under Section(s) 38(1)(b) Personal Information of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Context

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the vibrancy and vitality of towns and town centres. Scottish Government provide funding to Scotland’s Towns Partnership (STP) as the leading body representing the national towns’ collective, providing critical support to stakeholders with engagement, implementation and development of town centre strategies. STP are a key partner in supporting delivery of commitments included in the Town Centre Action Plan, working alongside COSLA, local authorities and other stakeholders.

STP is also our key partner in delivering the national Scotland Loves Local (SLL) programme, which acts as a mechanism to encourage people to think and choose local first and boost footfall back into our town centres. They also host Scotland’s Improvement Districts (SIDs) which provide advice and support for the governance structure for BIDs in Scotland.

STP Funding

From 2018/19 to 2025/26, STP has received £10.5 million funding from Scottish Government. This figure does not include funding committed for 2026/27 as this is yet to be paid (however the grant letter for the 2026/27 award can be found in the released documents).

The below table provides a breakdown of the funding they received in each of the years requested, along with a short description/classification of the funding

Financial Year	Details of Funding / Classification	Amount	Total Amount
2018/19	STP Grant Award	£264,000	£264,000
2019/20	STP Grant Award	£332,000	£332,000
2020/21	STP Grant Award (15/3/21) Grant Award - BID COVID Resilience Fund – (9/4/20) Grant Award - Towns and BIDs Resilience & Recovery Fund (16/9/20) Grant Award - BIDS seedcorn underspend redirected to support SLL Grant Award -SLL Fund (27/10/20)	£798,360 £1,000,000 £1,900,00 £43,000 £1,000,000	£4.76m
2021/22	STP Grant Award (15/4/22) Grant Award – SLL Marketing Campaign (23/06/21) Contract to administer SLL Fund (15/9/21) Grant Award – SLL Marketing Campaign (2/11/21) Grant Award – SLL Fund (21/11/21)	£975,000 £210,000 £15,000 £210,000 £1,565,000	£2.98m
2022/23	STP Grant Award	£650,000	£650,000
2023/24	STP Grant Award	£400,000	£400,000
2024/25	STP Grant Award	£550,000	£550,000
2025/26	STP Grant Award	£570,000	£570,000
2026/27	STP Grant Award (grant award issued but not yet paid)	£554,000	£554,000
Total:			£10.5m (not including 2026/27)

As requested, grant offer letters and/or relevant documentation have been provided. Please be aware that throughout 2020/21 and 2021/22, as a result of additional funding that was made available to respond to the COVID pandemic, revised grant letters were issued to take account of any additional funding. Where relevant, I have attached the final grant letter that reflects the overall amount that was provided to STP for that period.

Points to Note/Explanation:

• Document 6 details the redirection of unspent funds (intended to support the development of Business Improvement Districts) to support the Scotland Loves Local Campaign as part of COVID-19 response.
• Document 10 is a contract to administer the SLL Fund for the amount of £25,000.00. However, it should be noted that only £15,000.00 was paid to STP (in 2021/22) before the contract was cancelled due to the early conclusion of the Scotland Loves Local Fund.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202600509741 - Information Released - Annex

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