Forewords
Cllr Susan Aitken
Leader, Glasgow City Council
Kevin Rush
Director of Regional Economic Growth
There is no doubt that the economic conditions faced during 2022-2023 were amongst the most challenging in recent history. Households, communities and businesses have all faced significant pressures driven mainly by soaring inflation and energy costs, conditions which have also exacerbated the three Grand Economic Challenges around productivity, the climate emergency and inclusive growth facing Glasgow.
Despite these difficulties there remains much ground for optimism and solid progress to continue building on. The city is increasingly recognised for its highly skilled and educated workforce, its strong business base and world-leading academic sector. We are currently ranked fourth in the UK’s top 20 cities for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), second best city in the UK outside of London for innovation and are one of the fastest growing emerging tech economies in Europe.
Our regional economy is also one of the UK’s most diverse and competitive, with strengths across Digital and Tech (including Fintech and Data), Finance and Business Services, Space and Satellite, Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing, Creative Economy and Screen, Life Sciences and Precision Medicine, Tourism and Higher and Further Education. That complexity and diversity presents us with opportunities to continue building on our strengths, growing our resilience and enhancing the potential for growth.
Much of our approach is now informed by the work of the Regional Intelligence Hub, a team which has been critical to much recent progress. The Hub is providing the necessary evidence to build economic capability and capacity, inform strategies and policies, and make the cases for investment. Our grand challenges cannot rely on assumptions, previous decisions and approaches or ideology for solutions. Intelligence is critical to creating a more competitive, inclusive, productive and resilient city economy.
Glasgow is now also viewed as a leading global city on climate action, testament to our pioneering work on sustainability and a legacy of our hosting of COP26 in 2021. As the city continues its transition to becoming net zero by 2030, we have a generational opportunity for social and economic transformation. Our Greenprint for Investment showcases the city’s opportunities while a pioneering partnership secured at COP27 resulted in the secondment of a senior executive from a global insurer to help progress our approaches to climate investment, adaption and mitigation.
We have also been working with experts from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Foundation and Harvard University to improve levels of entrepreneurship, particularly amongst under-represented groups, and will now take our ideas forward to the next stage.
Another exciting development in the past year was the £60m purchase of the B-listed Met Tower by investor and developer Bruntwood Sci-Tech as part of a joint venture with Legal & General. The landmark building in the heart of the city will be transformed into a hub for R&D start-ups, spinouts and scale-ups, creating much-needed workspace and also offering opportunities for collaboration and access to specialist wrap-around support.
And in addition to being one of three Innovation Accelerator regions in the UK, the Glasgow City Region was also recently announced as one of two Investment Zones in Scotland, bringing £80million of investment to the area.
We don’t underestimate the scale of the challenges we face. But as it’s done in the past, Glasgow is again demonstrating its capacity for change. Glasgow is a solutions-focused, collaborative city and we look forward to continuing to progress our ambitions of a productive, sustainable and inclusive economy for all our citizens.
The Economic Development team has enjoyed another successful year, leading on the delivery of the ambitions and actions outlined in our Economic Strategy 2022-2030. Throughout 2022-23 we have continued to make strong progress towards addressing our three Grand Challenges of enhancing productivity, the climate emergency and inclusive growth.
Over the last year our Employability team has continued to play a vital role in supporting Glaswegians into work, training and apprenticeships through the delivery of high-quality employability services. These are designed to support everyone, including the most marginalised, on their journey towards work. Creating opportunities for all citizens is at the heart of addressing inequalities and achieving our ambition of inclusive growth.
Our experienced team of business advisers has continued to support SMEs, entrepreneurs and social enterprises. Last year we were proud to launch our new Green Business Support Programme which is helping local companies transition to net zero, meet the challenge of high energy costs and become more resilient to climate change. The programme, which is part-funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, is part of the Glasgow Green Deal, the city’s nine-year mission to transform the city’s economy to meet the climate and ecological emergency.
Invest Glasgow, our award-winning inward investment team, has continued to be very successful in promoting the city as a location of choice for global investment. In the EY Annual Attractiveness survey for 2022 Glasgow retained its fourth place ranking in the UK’s top 20 cities outside London, with 20 company investments.
In August we undertook a project with two key objectives, to support low-income households through the cost-of-living crisis and to provide a major spending boost to local businesses. We issued 84,665 Scotland Loves Local gift cards to eligible low-income households in the city. Each card was worth £105 and could only be spent in the Glasgow city area, thus locking in a multi-million pound spending boost to local businesses.
The city also continued to build on our growing international reputation for film and television production. In September BBC Studioworks opened in Kelvin Hall, offering truly world-class, state-of-the-art facilities. Glasgow also provided the backdrop for a number of high-profile productions, cementing the city’s position as the centre of the film and television production industry in Scotland.
And there is much more to be optimistic about in the future. Glasgow City Region is one of three UK regions to share £100 million in funding for the Innovation Accelerators programme, part of the UK Government’s Levelling Up plans. The funding will support 11 ambitious projects and will turbo charge a massive step change in the region’s innovation economy and performance.
We are currently working with the Centre for Civic Innovation to rethink and redesign our current employability support programme to ensure it is truly accessible and responsive to people’s needs.
I am also delighted that the Grants and Initiatives team is now part of Economic Development. Their critical work to manage the delivery of the Glasgow Communities Fund and the Children’s Holiday Food and Activity Programme will play a key role in helping to address our three Grand Challenges.
The Economic Development team plays a vital role in supporting and growing Glasgow’s economy. As we look forward to the year ahead, we are confident that through working closely with our valued partners across the city and beyond, we will continue to contribute to Glasgow’s bright economic future.
