As Leader of the Council I have written again to the Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment to seek clarification on the Government's funding commitment to our urban regeneration company Riverside Inverclyde.
Previously the Government indicated that it was only prepared to fund RI for a further two years, causing considerable uncertainty over the company's future. The current Council Administration is fully committed to honouring our 10 year, £24m funding pledge to RI and I had sought assurances from the Cabinet Secretary that the Government would honour its funding pledge. Unfortunately the Cabinet Secretary up till now has not made a similar commitment to the Council.
Recent discussions between officials however have suggested that the Government may be prepared to offer further funding to RI beyond its current two year commitment. I have therefore written to the Cabinet Secretary to seek clarification on this point.
Below is the text of my letter to Mr Neil:
"Dear Alex
I understand that you have offered to meet the Board of Riverside Inverclyde to outline the Scottish Government’s commitment to the regeneration of Inverclyde and the continuation of Riverside Inverclyde URC. I know that Bill Nicol, the CEO, has contacted David Cowan in your Regeneration Team to try and arrange an early date for a discussion.
Whilst I welcome the fact that you are happy to attend the Board meeting to discuss the Government’s continued commitment to the URC, as Leader of Inverclyde Council, a key funder of the Company, I would appreciate if you could give me some further detail on how the Government is going to financially support the URC moving forward. I believe that a two year funding settlement to cover core costs at a level of £2.5M and £1.5M has been made for the year 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 respectively.
The URC has also been asked to work closely with colleagues in the Government to prepare a four year Business Plan for the Government’s consideration. In order that stability and clarity can exist within the URC, and that I can update the Council, I would appreciate if you could confirm what that means in real financial terms.
I look forward to your reply and seeing you at the Riverside Inverclyde Board meeting.
Yours sincerely
Stephen McCabe
Leader of the Council"
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May I ask what the origonal commitment from the Scottish Government was ,in financial terms, and where I can find out more about this,maybe a web site.
ReplyDeleteTommy
£36m from the Government and £33m from Scottish Enterprise.
ReplyDeleteGo to the Council's website and find the agenda for the meeting of the Regeneration Committee on 15 November 2011. There is a report titled "Riverside Inverclyde - Partner Funding".