Additional support totalling £848,123 is being provided from the Scottish Government’s Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF) for a trio of flagship regeneration projects in the city.
The Leith Community Croft project is transforming a former tennis pavilion at Leith Links into a new multifunctional community hub run by the environmental charityEarth in Common.
It will be used for events, training, and promoting local food production and will receive £159,123 of the additional funding.
The Macmillan Hub in Pennywell will feature a library, an early years centre, affordable housing, and a new enterprise, workshop, learning and creative studio space to be run by the local charityNorth Edinburgh Arts.
The Hub forms part of the wider strategic regeneration of Pennywell-Muirhouse and will receive £500,000 of the additional funding, to be used to help deliver the creative space.
The project will deliver workspaces for artists and micro-businesses along with a new home for the popular Pitt Street Food Market. The project will receive £189,000 of the additional funding towards the renewal of doors and windows along with essential utilities work.
Welcoming the news, Depute Leader of the City of Edinburgh Council Mandy Watt said: “This funding is very welcome as these projects will play a key role in the ongoing regeneration and enhancement of Granton Waterfront, Pennywell, and Leith in north Edinburgh.
“The funding will help the projects in their goals to bring new jobs, training courses, and recreation opportunities to the communities of all three areas. I look forward to visiting these projects in future to see how they are benefitting local people in the years to come.”
Community Wealth Minister Tom Arthur said: “I congratulate these projects on making progress and supporting jobs, investment and wider opportunities. Regeneration of Scotland’s more disadvantaged communities is a key Scottish Government priority to help transform the economy.
“This extra Scottish Government funding will help deliver fairer and more prosperous local districts.”
Regeneration projects in disadvantaged and rural communities across Scotland will receive a share of almost £27 million funding.
The investment will support schemes tackling child poverty and addressing issues like addiction and suicide prevention, while creating jobs and growing local economies. It supports town centre regeneration by bringing derelict buildings back into use and creating new buildings for the community or for commercial purposes.
The latest round of funding from the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF), delivered in partnership with COSLA and local authorities, will help 23 community-based initiatives which will create and support more than 700 jobs and more than 500 construction jobs, along with hundreds of training places.
Edinburgh’s Peffer Place Business Park in Craigmillar receives £2.25 million.
Other initiatives include:
converting a derelict Motherwell sports pitch into a recreation area and community base to support groups at particular risk of suicide
transforming a former pipe factory in Glasgow into a community centre and creative hub for young people, including those with care experience
renovating an empty, derelict building in Lossiemouth into a community hub providing services including affordable childcare, addiction counselling and debt advice
establishing a five-acre campus in Easter Ross to offer training in sustainable food production, promote zero waste and deliver courses focused on tackling food poverty and poor mental health
Community Wealth Minister Tom Arthur said: “These innovative, grassroots schemes have been developed within communities to address local needs.
“Scottish Government support will help provide services like employment training, affordable childcare, mental health support and addiction counselling. Derelict landmarks will be redeveloped and new buildings created.
“By working in partnership with residents and local authorities, we are helping communities to support themselves and develop fair, green and prosperous economies which accelerate progress towards net zero emissions.
“The Scottish Government wants to create a fairer society by enabling more people to benefit directly from the wealth generated by local communities. That is why we are introducing Community Wealth Building legislation during this Parliamentary term – to fundamentally transform what our economy is for and how it operates.”
COSLA’s Environment and Economy spokesperson Councillor Gail Macgregor said: “The announcement today shows the strength of the RCGF and the commitment by local government to regenerating communities.
“In this uncertain time of inflation, rising energy costs and increased demand on services, the fund demonstrates what can be achieved in our towns, cities, villages and islands when support is focused on social and economic renewal.
“From tackling the mental health crisis to food poverty, affordable childcare to climate change, this fund goes beyond what we traditionally think of as regeneration thanks to the ambition and innovative thinking of communities across Scotland.”
Since 2014-15, the RCGF has funded more than 200 projects which have supported or generated thousands of jobs, repurposed and returned to use landmark buildings in town centres, and created numerous new commercial spaces and multi-use community facilities.
RCGF funding applications are invited annually from all 32 local authorities and Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company, as part of a two-stage process.
An independent Investment Panel agrees recommendations to Ministers and COSLA on projects to be funded during the forthcoming financial year. Applicants must detail how projects will help meet net zero ambitions and reduce carbon emissions.
The Scottish Government plans to introduce Community Wealth Building legislation during this Parliamentary term to accelerate progress on transforming local economies and fundamentally reshaping how communities operate.
Regeneration projects in some of Scotland’s more disadvantaged and rural communities will share more than £25 million of funding.
One of these is the Macmillan Hub in Muirhouse, which has been allocated £2 million, while nearby West Shore Studios on Granton Waterfront receives £1.73 million.
The Regeneration Capital Grant Fund will support 22 locally developed place-based projects that tackle inequalities and promote sustainable and inclusive economic recovery from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Whilst helping revitalise town centres and neighbourhoods, these projects aim to support up to 3,000 jobs, training and volunteering opportunities and reduce local carbon emissions.
Projects to benefit from a share of this fund include:
initiatives that transform historic buildings into new shared business spaces, including work to turn a disused historic building in Renfrewshire into the country’s first theatre designed for young people
a new £4 million technology hub in Shawfield, Glasgow, that will provide low carbon space for engineering development, medical, and digital research industries
a new £2.3 million Skills and Innovation Centre in Kelloholm, Dumfries and Galloway, that will create community project space and offices for third sector and small businesses
funding of £2 million to unlock investment worth £14.6 million to create a new hub in Muirhouse that will provide a nursery, library, workshops for new businesses, an expanded cafe plus six affordable homes and a revamped community arts centre
a new £750,000 centre in South Uist to promote Gaelic language, culture, music and dance
Welcoming the funding, city council leader Adam McVey said: “This funding comes as a fantastic endorsement for the work we’re doing to create equal and sustainable communities in North Edinburgh. Coming just before Christmas at a very difficult time for communities still struggling to cope with the effects of the pandemic it is very welcome news indeed.
“It will help enormously with our multi-use hub adding to our major success story in regenerating North Edinburgh. It’s so exciting to see this joint project with North Edinburgh Arts getting this recognition and endorsement. As well as a cultural hub, the funding will help provide an accessible library and quality early years care at the heart of the community.”
Depute Leader Cammy Day said: “In recent years our North Edinburgh regeneration project has brought massive positive change and a more equal and sustainable future for the communities living in the Pennywell and Muirhouse areas. It’s great to see further investment completing our regeneration at MacMillan Square.
“The pandemic is very much still with us and I’m so pleased communities in North Edinburgh have some inspiration and great news for the New Year. This further investment for our creative and community hub at Granton Waterfront enhances our £1.3bn wider Granton Waterfront project and follows on from our work with communities building new homes and facilities nearby.
“I’m pleased to see the new hub being delivered for us by Edinburgh Palette in Granton Waterfront is receiving the recognition it deserves.
Lesley Hinds, Chair of North Edinburgh Arts, said: “North Edinburgh Arts (NEA) is a multi-award winning project with strong community support and we are thrilled to be awarded funding from the Scottish Government.
“This funding means NEA can move forward with the MacMillan Hub project, in partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council, to provide much needed space and services for the local area. NEA recently finalised a Community Asset Transfer which brings the NEA building, land and garden into community ownership and allows for the expansion of our work, essential now more than ever, as we recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We now look forward to securing the additional resources needed to build on this important award. I want to give my thanks to the NEA Board, staff, officers at the City of Edinburgh Council, Richard Murphy Architects and, most importantly, the community of North Edinburgh for their continued support.”
Community Wealth Minister Tom Arthur said: “The last few years have been tough for us all but many of Scotland’s communities have been more impacted than others. The latest projects to benefit from the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund are working to tackle inequalities and create vibrant town centres and neighbourhoods.
“By securing investment from this £25 million fund, these innovative projects demonstrate the powerful role those in our communities can have in helping to transform their town centres and neighbourhoods by investing in their future. The Scottish Government will do all it can to support projects that help create the fairer, greener and more prosperous Scotland we all want to see.”
COSLA’s Environment and Economy spokesperson Councillor Steven Heddle said: “Once again, the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund has created the opportunity to deliver jobs, tackle inequalities and create better places across Scotland.
“The exciting projects announced today showcase the best of partnership between local authorities and our communities, delivering economic and social renewal as we rebuild from the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The diversity of projects supported is testament to the success of identifying local solutions to enable people to live well locally.
“In the face of the climate emergency, it is essential that the most vulnerable in society are not further disadvantage by climate change and I am especially pleased to see the additional focus on achieving a just transition to a net zero society.”
Matt Lammie, Chair of Kirkconnel & Kelloholm Development Trust, said: “This grant support for the new Kelloholm Skills and Innovation Centre is fantastic news and a great boost to the community of Kirkconnel and Kelloholm, in what has been a difficult year.
“Our whole community has worked hard to bring the Skills & Innovation Centre project forward and it will make a real difference to regenerating our area, connecting us to the wider world, and most important of all it will help our young people to get the skills that the need so that they can live, work and prosper here where they were brought up rather than having to move away.”
Go-ahead for Granton Station and Nourishing Leith Hubs
More than £25 million is going to disadvantaged and remote communities around Scotland to support regeneration and employment projects. Two Edinburgh projects, Granton Station Enterprise Hub (above) and Nourishing Leith Hub, will receive funding of over £2.2 million.
The money from the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF) will go to 26 projects all over Scotland to tackle inequalities and deliver inclusive growth.
Over 400 business and organisations will benefit from the projects which will support or create more than 1220 jobs as well as thousands of training places by refurbishing and bringing back into use 26 empty buildings to provide space for community enterprises.
Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell said: “Together with COSLA we have invested almost £200 million through this fund since 2014 in support of locally-led regeneration projects which help to build the resilience and wellbeing of communities. I am pleased that a further 26 projects will benefit from the fund as we look to a period of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have had to lead our lives locally, pulling together more as communities, to see off the many challenges arising from coronavirus. This latest round of investment into local projects continues our ongoing support for vibrant and accessible town centres and communities.”
Earth in Common (formerly Leith Crops in Pots) were delighted to hear that their funding application has been successful at last. The Leith initiaitve recieves £944,744.
A spokesperson for the community project said: “Our team are over the moon with this news today! After many years and huge effort we finally done it. Our pixies went on one small outing today and look what they managed to achieve. Must have been all that fairy dust. They ‘Saved the PAV’!”
COSLA’s Environment and Economy spokesperson Councillor Steven Heddle said: “This work has never been more important as we look to rebuild from the devastating impact of COVID-19. Recovery from the virus must be fair to our communities and promote inclusivity, growth and wellbeing.
“The innovative projects announced today can empower our communities to deliver better places to live and work.”
While many of the awards are for projects based in urban areas, there’s funding for initiatives in some far-flung communities too
Among the projects being funded this year is The Old Clyne School Redevelopment Project in Brora, Highland. It will redevelop a derelict C-listed building to become a community-owned museum and heritage centre, and to be a base for the Clyne Heritage Society.
Dr Nick Lindsay, Chairman of the Clyne Heritage Society said: “This is the best news that we could have hoped for, in what has been a very difficult year. This should unlock the final ‘brick-in-the-wall’ funds from other funding partners, so we can deliver this major development for Brora.
“We can now fulfil our dreams by regenerating the Old Clyne School into a must-visit destination, transforming a current eyesore into a welcome attraction for the whole community and future generations.”
