Hubs boost Scottish construction industry

The Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) has helped generate £200 million-worth of construction projects over the past year and will be vital to helping the Scottish construction industry to recover from the impact of the Coronavirus.

The trust set up a programme of five hubs, which are a partnership between the public and private sectors. Investment from these hubs led to £205.4- million-worth of construction contracts being let in the 12 months to Q1 2020 according to Glenigan’s construction data.

Glenigan Economics director Allan Wilén comments: “Levels of public sector construction spending remain high in Scotland compared to England, in part due to the funding of projects through the SFT.”

The South East hub has generated the most work by value over the past year, including a £14.3 million primary school in Calderwood, which has been developed with West Lothian Council (Glenigan Project ID: 18397195).

The South West of Scotland has developed the largest number of individual schemes, including a £27 million school in Stevenston for North Ayrshire Council, which is being built by Morrison (Glenigan Project ID: 18355605).

Work coming up

The impact of the coronavirus temporarily closed some hub schemes, such as the £11 million New Madras College in St Andrews but Glenigan’s research shows this site has now reopened (Glenigan Project ID: 14046236).

Fife Council developed this scheme in conjunction with the East Central hub, which has a swathe of other work in the pipeline. This ranges from a £20 million conversion of Perth City Hall into a tourist attraction (Glenigan Project ID: 14071791), which should start on site this autumn, to a £1.2 million nursery at Lochgelly High School that was recently granted planning permission (Glenigan Project ID: 19234810).

The North hub helped NHS Highland realise an £18.5 million community hospital in Aviemore (Glenigan Project ID: 17331928) and, according to Glenigan’s research, has other plans in the pipeline, such as a £500,000 health & social care club at Castlebay in the Western Isles (Glenigan Project ID: 18356048).

The West Scotland hub’s work includes a £15.1 million health and care centre in Clydebank developed with NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde Trust, which started recently (Glenigan Project ID: 17305342). Often the hubs will generate projects as part of wider developments and this scheme forms part of a £250 million residential and housing scheme in Clydebank (Glenigan Project ID: 15368114).

Major boost

In addition to the hub programme, the SFT helps bring forward major developments, such as the £1.3 billion Granton Waterfront in Edinburgh. Proposals to turn a brownfield area into a new coastal town featuring 3,500 homes were unveiled in February (Glenigan Project ID: 18386799).

The city council has committed £196 million and housing associations including Port of Leith, Link and Places for People are already delivering around 700 new homes. CCG, for example, was on site with Plot Three for 104 flats before the virus struck (Glenigan Project ID: 17099519) and other packages are in the pipeline.

The SFT and the council are also working with National Museums Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland and Edinburgh College to deliver other projects around Granton Waterfront.
As the industry begins to recover once the worst of the virus has passed, the work of the trust and the hub programme will play an important role in bringing new work forward in the future.

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