Innovation and infrastructure plan to create 50,000 new jobs in Glasgow

25 Nov 2016

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Technology and Innovation Centre at the University of Strathclyde

Glasgow City Council has announced a number ‘smart’ infrastructure investment plans, including the creation of Scotland’s first city innovation district, as part of a pledge to have 50,000 new jobs and an additional 1000 new businesses by 2023.

Set in the area around the Technical Innovation Centre near George Square, the Glasgow Innovation District already has £150 million initial capital investment and an innovation programme worth £250m.

It will bring business, academia and government together in Glasgow to grow the health and life sciences and engineering sectors respectively. The district will be co-located across the city at Strathclyde University’s Technology & Innovation Centre (TiC); Scottish Enterprise’s Innovo Building; and Glasgow City Council’s City Deal Tontine Building that supports high-growth companies.

The idea is included in the new Glasgow Economic Strategy 2016-2023 announced today by council leader Councillor Frank McAveety, at the 19th annual State of the City Economy Conference.

Among the strategy’s ‘smart infrastructure investment’ pledges are plans to:

Develop proposals for a Glasgow Infrastructure Fund, supporting capital investment in the city.

Exploit the opportunities that the City Deal offers to further expand the required foundations for a Smart City across Glasgow, including installing digital and other infrastructure wherever construction and excavation work takes place across the city and ensuring the continuing introduction and enhancement of Smart City services as an integral facet of City Deal projects where appropriate.

Revitalise the city centre through the delivery of the City Centre Strategy and £115.5million of City Deal investment, improving the public realm, investing in smart infrastructure such as surface water management systems and adaptable lighting systems, the creation of avenues of trees, segregated cycle lanes, and reductions in vehicle traffic.

Invest £113.9m in the Clyde Waterfront and West End Innovation Quarter. This area has fantastic assets, such as the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, the University of Glasgow, Pacific Quay and the West End itself. We will invest to unlock potential vacant and derelict sites for employment and housing; to enhance clustering and stimulate growth in the Life Science and Higher Education sectors and maximise the benefits of existing high value industries; and spread the benefits of City Deal investment to tackle multiple deprivation, particularly in Govan.

Completely transform Sighthill, with £250m of investment creating new homes, a new school, a new pedestrian bridge improving connectivity across the M8 motorway and a new road bridge linking the area to the north and west of the city.

Invest £27m in the Calton/Barras area, improving access to High Street railway station; upgrading the streets linking Gallowgate and Duke Street; enabling the further development of the Collegelands site to include a hotel, more office space and leisure facilities; building a new foot bridge proving a key link between Duke Street and Armour Street; and remediating land at the former meat market site at Bellgrove to create an attractive development site close to the city centre.

Invest £45.8m in improving drainage across Glasgow, unlocking significant land for development across the city.

Build a surface access transport link between Glasgow city centre and Glasgow Airport in partnership with Renfrewshire Council and the UK and Scottish Governments.

The city also aims to build 25,000 new homes and increase the number of tourists visiting the city from two million to three million each year, a move which the council said will require an additional 2500 hotel beds.

Councillor McAveety said: “We aim to make the next seven years the biggest jobs bonanza in Glasgow’s history. We know that the 50,000 target is ambitious but we have done the sums and they add up.

“We plan to deliver 50,000 jobs across all of the city’s employment sectors, from tourism to high tech, from renewables to health and life sciences. This strategy is the most ambitious on record and rightly so because Glasgow is open for business”

The theme for this year’s conference is Glasgow is Open for Business. The city recently launched a major Brexit report and the launch of the new economic strategy offers a clear direction on how Glasgow will meet the challenges of leaving the European Union.