Almost 30,000 jobs have been created or supported since 2018 thanks to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.
The Deal, which launched in 2018, is at the halfway point in its 15-year delivery timeline and has already contributed £3.6 billion in economic growth.
The £1.3 billion Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal is supported with £300 million each from the Scottish and UK governments.
Over 5000 businesses have engaged directly with the Deal through partnerships or collaborations on training and skills development, innovation, and jobs, and more than £1 billion in additional funding has been secured for Deal-related projects.
From Fife to the Scottish Borders, the Deal is delivering investment across housing, transport, innovation, culture, and skills and employment.
Highlights include seven new innovation hubs to increase links between university research and industry, housing developments that have so far delivered almost 8,500 new homes, and two industrial innovation zones.
Councillor Jane Meagher, Chair, Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal Joint Committee, said:
The Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal is delivering real results. Now worth £1.7 billion, it generates the greatest additional investment of any Scottish city region or growth deal. The programme is driving economic growth, improving the services and functions the city relies on and creating sustainable communities, while ensuring benefits reach all of the region. To date, it has created over 29,000 jobs and built more than 8,000 homes and supported over £3.6 billion in Gross Value Added. The jobs created and skills improvements ensure that local people can access high-quality, better-paid work and benefit from the prosperity created by the City Region Deal.
Garry Clark, Chair of the Deal's Regional Enterprise Council, said:
Businesses across Edinburgh and South East Scotland will rightly judge the City Region Deal by the difference they can see on the ground. The Deal set ambitious targets from the outset, and it has consistently delivered measurable results.
In Fife, for example, small firms are benefiting from new industrial units that fill a vital gap in the local property market, and East Lothian’s new Innovation Hub is already home to a diverse group of businesses. Across the region, employers now have access to a stronger talent pipeline thanks to the award winning Integrated Regional Employability and Skills programme. The Deal is helping strengthen partnerships between industry, the third sector, and academia—collaboration that would be far harder to achieve in isolation. It has also helped build a resilient local supply chain, ensuring that local businesses and local skills have been central to the delivery of each project.
Together, these achievements show an impressive track record and signal even greater transformation ahead as the Deal continues to support the regional economy and the people who drive it.
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said:
Working together with local partners we have provided £300 million towards this Deal to drive economic opportunities and help communities across Edinburgh, the Lothians, Fife and the Borders to thrive.
From new jobs and skills training to investment in innovation and thousands of new homes this funding is delivering tangible benefits that people across the region can see and feel in their daily lives.
Whether it's a new concert hall for Edinburgh, delivering a national centre for robotics and AI at Heriot-Watt University or supporting Scotland's largest brownfield regeneration project at Granton Waterfront, these investments will shape this region for generations to come.
UK Government Scotland Office Minister Kirsty McNeill said:
We are backing Edinburgh and South East Scotland with £300 million UK Government funding. It’s great news that half has already been spent on transformational projects in areas such as innovation, skills and employment, helping to create or support tens of thousands of jobs and contributing billions of pounds of economic growth. We look forward to working with partners over the rest of the deal to maximise the benefits from the remaining funding to deliver economic and community renewal across Scotland.