A National Mission with Local Impact: Infrastructure Investment Plan for Scotland 2021-22 to 2025-26

The Infrastructure Investment Plan outlines a coherent, and strategic approach to delivering our National Infrastructure Mission. The Plan demonstrates the vital role infrastructure has to play in helping businesses and communities to adapt and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.


Chapter 6: Theme 3: Building Resilient and Sustainable Places

Some achievements from our last, 2015 Infrastructure Investment Plan

£3.5 billion made available to support the single biggest investment in, and delivery of, affordable housing since devolution.

Delivered new healthcare facilities such as NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's Woodside Health Centre, Stirling Care Village, and NHS Orkney New Hospital and Healthcare Facilities. 

£476 million to support the expansion of Early Learning and Childcare – investment so that more parents will be able to participate in work, training or study.

Delivering on our ambitions for a fairer Scotland starts at the local community level. Opportunities exist in our cities, towns, villages and neighbourhoods to bring together individual investments for greater impact. 

The COVID 19 pandemic has required us to rethink how and where we work, opening up new ways to think about our neighbourhoods, towns, cities and rural communities. We must also respond to changes in demography, and in the way in which people wish to access and consume services. Our next National Planning Framework and new Digital Planning tool will help us to reconsider and plan the future development of our places in light of recent events as well as in line with our long-term commitments to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Through our Place based Investment Programme, we will implement the Place Principle at pace to ensure that investment is relevant to each place and for the benefit of all the people in that place. This is a collaborative place based approach driven by the needs of communities – collectively getting behind community led changes at the heart of an area. 

It is ever more crucial to ensure everyone has a suitable home at the heart of a great place to live and work: one that is safe, warm and affordable; close to services, shopping, work, and with access to outdoor space for recreation, aligning with the ambitions we intend to set out in Housing to 2040 to be published shortly and in the draft National Planning Framework 4 to be published this autumn. A new emphasis on localism, with quality homes in quality places, informed by concepts such as 20 minute neighbourhoods will help to achieve that.

We will invest in housing and better delivery of services locally – be that in adapting Scotland's housing stock to better meet people's needs, delivering a network of community treatment centres and NHS Near me health services, designing more integrated education facilities to help all learners reach their full potential and modernising our justice facilities and transforming emergency services to adapt to the digital age.

Case Study

Loanhead Centre

Partners seized the opportunity of Schools for the Future investment significantly to shape and modernise previously separate and poorer quality public sector facilities. Through a more holistic approach to service planning, a new combined centres was developed which co-located a primary school, NHS medical centre, and community library and leisure facilities.

The community were consulted from the beginning, ensuring buy in to the new hub and facilities provided. The sense of community ownership of the building has developed trust and ensured that the building is well used. Take-up of services has been higher than before – including a 50% increase in footfall in the library compared to pre-hub figures. The Centre has allowed multiple generations to mix and engage and ultimately be proud of the facility and their place. 

Theme 3: What the Infrastructure Investment Plan will deliver: 2021-22 to 2025-26
Purpose Plans
Creating better local places We will build on our "Place Principle" to promote place-based economic development and cohesion, ensuring all city, town, village and island communities can thrive by establishing a Place Based Investment Programme. 
  • As part of this programme we will invest £275 million to support community led regeneration and town centre revitalisation, including the repurposing of buildings, maintenance and repairs, reallocating external space and community led land acquisition. This will build on the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund the ongoing work on Clyde Gateway.
We will continue to address the inequalities of land ownership through a five year Scottish Land Fund programme of £43 million.  We will develop a £35 million new, open-access, digital planning system.  We will invest over £18 million over the next three years to support the introduction of Low Emission Zones into Scotland's 4 major cities.
Access to high-quality sustainable homes that are affordable and meet people's needs  Implementing our Housing to 2040 Vision and Principles and Route Map, due later in 2021, we will create and fund a plan for high quality, energy efficient, zero carbon affordable housing with access to outdoor space, sustainable transport links, digital connectivity and community services:
  • We will invest £3.4 billion in housing over 5 years, including Financial Transactions in 2021-22. Over £3.3 billion will deliver more affordable and social homes, helping to create great places, and continuing to ensure the right types of homes in the right places to support Local Housing Strategies and regional development priorities. 
  • We will invest £58 million in a programme to help Registered Social Landlords deliver adaptations needed to enable tenants to stay in their homes for longer, or permit them a speedy and safe return from hospital care. As part of Programme for Government 2020-21 we will also review the current housing adaptations system and make recommendations on how best to improve and streamline the system and maximise the impact of investment.
High quality social infrastructure We will boost digitally accessible services, whilst improving the condition of our buildings and enabling the right new facilities.  In Health we will:
  • Double our annual funding for maintenance over five years, investing £1 billion in enhancing or refurbishing existing facilities, and updating and modernising key equipment.
  • Invest a further £204 million in the Baird and Anchor project in Aberdeen which brings together all Maternity, Neonatal, Reproductive Medicine, Breast and Gynaecology services in the Baird Family Hospital and consolidates Haematology, Oncology and Radiotherapy Day and Outpatient services under one roof in the ANCHOR Cancer centre.
  • Reduce the pressure on our acute health facilities, and improve treatment times for patients, through a £320 million programme of investment that will encompass the provision of additional elective capacity across 5 Health Boards (on 6 sites) to cover the all-Scotland requirement out to 2035.
  • Upgrade the Edinburgh Cancer Centre (£20 million), build the new national secure adolescent inpatient service in Irvine (£10 million) and replace the St Brendan's facility in Barra (£18 million) 
  • Invest £67 million for the provision of a new health and social care community hub in Parkhead that will replace 10 different buildings across Glasgow North east area. 
  • Invest over £50 million to modernise our radiology equipment nationally, and over £100 million to upgrade and replace our ambulance fleet. 
In Education & Skills we will: 
  • For Colleges, invest up to £90 million in the Dunfermline Learning Campus. 
  • Together with Councils, fund an ambitious £2 billion Learning Estate Investment Programme, using an outcomes-based revenue finance approach. The first phase of 11 new school projects was announced in September 2019 a second phase of investment was announced in December 2020 to add a further 25 primary and secondary schools. 
In Justice we will:
  • Conclude the HMP Highland establishment, replace HMP Inverness and HMP Barlinnie and commence construction on the new HMP Glasgow. Representing a total investment of around £500 million. 
  • By 2022, complete our £98 million of investment in the construction of the innovative new female custodial estate, including a new national prison and two Community Custody Units in Dundee and Glasgow, tailored to the specific support needs of women.
Scottish Water is planning to invest over £4.5 billion in the next charge control period 2021-27 to maintain and improve services across Scotland, address the challenges of its aging asset base and make progress towards the achievement of its commitment to net zero emissions by 2040. Of this £3.5 billion will be on major investment programmes including water treatment works at Invercannie (£53 million) and Burncrooks (£36 million); waste water treatment works at Winchburgh (£34 million); and the Loch Ness regional scheme (£28 million).

Contact

Email: InfrastructureInvestmentStrategy@gov.scot

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