Additional £45 Million to Support Growth and Innovation Announced

31/08/2017 - The First Minister has set out key actions the Scottish Government will take to boost growth, create jobs and seize the economic opportunities of the future.

Outlining her vision to see Scotland design and produce the products of the future, the First Minister highlighted the twin importance of innovation and inclusion to ensuring Scotland is in the best position to benefit from changes in the economy.

The First Minister made the announcement as she spoke at Spirit AeroSystems Europe Ltd, where she confirmed the Prestwick-based company has won a contract to produce new carbon wing components for the Airbus A320 aircraft.

With the support of £2.1 million of research and development (R&D) funding from Scottish Enterprise, Spirit were able to use advanced manufacturing technology to secure the new contract, which will create more than 100 jobs.

Recognising the importance of businesses replicating the success of companies like Spirit, the First Minister revealed plans for a 70% increase in Scottish Government funding for businesses to conduct new R&D projects, with an additional £45 million to be invested over the next three years.

In the coming weeks, the First Minister also set out key areas where the government will be making further commitments, to help Scotland capitalise on economic opportunities, including:

• Extra help for the advanced manufacturing, energy and financial technology sectors
• Plans to support graduate entrepreneurs
• Support for companies to access finance
• Plans to make Scotland an early adopter of electric and ultra-low emission vehicles

Nicola Sturgeon said:

“I am determined that Scotland leads on the key technological and social changes. I want Scotland to be the inventor and producer of the innovations that shape the future – not just a consumer of them.

“Spirit AeroSystems is an excellent example of a company providing industry-leading expertise and investing in Scotland. It is significant that research and development grant support from Scottish Enterprise has helped the business win this important new Airbus contract.

“R&D drives innovation, which in turn boosts productivity and economic growth. That is why R&D support from our enterprise agencies will increase almost 70% - from £22 million to £37 million per year. We expect this additional £45 million over three years will unlock a further £270 million R&D 

expenditure by companies

“We need to not only embrace technological innovations, we also must ensure that economic growth is inclusive – so that everyone benefits and has a fair chance to contribute. In the coming weeks I will set out further plans for Scotland’s economy and how we can make further progress towards achieving both of these key aims.”

Scott McLarty, Vice President and General Manager, Spirit UK and Malaysia, added:

“We are pleased that this innovative technology development brings not only improved quality and savings to our customer, but also secures an additional work stream for the UK business.

 “This opportunity leverages our technology, design and manufacturing expertise to better support the needs of our customers and significantly strengthens our ability to secure future work.”

Linda Hanna, Managing Director of Strategy & Sectors at Scottish Enterprise, added:

“I am delighted Spirit has won this key project for their Prestwick site. It's a fantastic example of how Scotland’s expertise and capability in aerospace engineering and manufacturing is successfully competing on the global stage. “Our £2.1 million of R&D support to Spirit demonstrates the work we are doing to drive up levels of innovation and cement Scotland as the top location in the UK for R&D related foreign direct investment.  Today's announcement of an additional £45 million investment in this area by the Scottish Government will be a further boost to Scotland's innovation landscape.”

Background

Spirit AeroSystems received a £2.1 million R&D grant from Scottish Enterprise which, alongside early stage backing from the Aerospace Technology Institute, allowed the company to develop and commercialise new composite technology to enable them to win the Airbus contract. The R&D financial contribution to this project by Spirit, in addition to the SE funding, was £18.3 million.

The contract is to produce the ‘spoiler’ wing component for the Airbus A320 aircraft. A spoiler is a device used to reduce the lift of an aircraft in a controlled way.

Source: Scottish Government

Nora Senior Appointed as Chair to the Strategic Board for Enterprise and Skills

31/08/2017 - The First Minister confirmed that Nora Senior, chair of UK regions for global PR firm Weber Shandwick, will chair the Strategic Board for Enterprise and Skills.

The new board will coordinate the work of the public sector to deliver growth in the economy. Nora recently served as president of the British Chambers of Commerce and chair of Scottish Chambers of Commerce.

The First Minister said:

“The new Strategic Board for the Enterprise and Skills Agencies will come into being later this year.  One reason for establishing that board is to ensure better co-ordination of our agencies, securing maximum impact from our spending.

“The quality of the leadership of that board will be crucial.  That is why I am delighted to announce that Nora Senior as the board’s first chair. Nora has had a hugely distinguished career in business and is the ideal person to lead the new strategic board as it works with business to achieve our shared ambitions for growth.”

Nora Senior said:

"There is clear ambition to increase productivity and drive inclusive economic growth in Scotland   To achieve that we need to maximise the considerable investment in enterprise and skills development to ensure we have the right skills, resources and business support in place  

"The Strategic Board creates a central  focus for representatives from business, education ,our economic agencies and civic communities from around Scotland to align behind a common purpose and vision, input to the most effective areas of investment, collaborate and share resources."

Background

More on the enterprise and skills review.

Source: Scottish Government

£2.5 million for Employability Support in Scotland Announced

Scottish Government - Projects that are improving employment support by linking with health and social care, justice and housing services will receive a share of a £2.5 million fund.

Thirteen projects operating across 15 local authorities will receive funding through the Employability Innovation and Integration Fund to help people access employment and training.

Funding will go to a mixture of projects including an approach in Fife which will increase employment outcomes for people suffering mental ill-health and an approach in North Lanarkshire to join up services for homeless residents who have recognised health, social care and housing support needs.

Minister for Employability and Training Jamie Hepburn said:

“People affected by homelessness, who have criminal convictions or suffer from mental ill-health face significant barriers to finding work, and it can be challenging to balance the search for a job with the need to access other important services.

“These 13 new projects will join together employability and skills support with health and social care, housing, and justice services which will improve the quality of localised support available for people across the country.

“The work of these projects ties in with the fairer approach we are taking to deliver our newly devolved employment services, where we have removed the threat of sanctions and are providing support that is more flexible, tailored and responsive to people’s needs.”

Mr Hepburn announced the investment in Dundee. Funding of around £275,000 will go to a Tayside regional project to integrate employability and skills with housing, healthy living and community justice across Dundee, Perth and Kinross and Angus.

John Alexander leader of Dundee City Council said:

"I am delighted that our joint bid to support people across the Angus, Dundee and Perth and Kinross area has been successful.

"We know that not having a job is only part of the challenge facing some people and this money will allow us to help them to overcome other issues around getting into employment including health, debt and housing.

"Specialist staff will be on hand to give support and advice as part of a 13-week programme, backed by the councils in Angus, Dundee and Perth and Kinross, while people are also learning new skills in applying for jobs, such as digital applications and improved interview techniques."

Background

The funding is for projects that will operate in Paisley; Dundee, Perth and Kinross and Angus; Fife; Edinburgh; Stirling; Glasgow; North Lanarkshire; Renfrewshire; Inverclyde; Falkirk; South Lanarkshire and Aberdeenshire.

Full details of the projects available.

Source: Scottish Government

Scottish EDGE Launches New £100K Award For Creative Companies

Digit - Scotland’s leading business funding competition has partnered with the Cultural Enterprise Office and Creative Scotland to encourage more creative industries companies to enter.

The Scottish Edge competition has created a new special award for companies working in Scotland’s creation industries.

Rounds 11 and 12 of the competition will include the new Creative EDGE award. This is a special prize of up to £100,000, split as 40% grant and 60% loan. It will be awarded to one company, based upon the decision of the judging panel.

Scottish EDGE has worked with Creative Scotland, the organisation responsible for Scotland’s creative and cultural economy and the Cultural Enterprise Office, which specialises in helping creating businesses start-up and grow, to bring the Creative EDGE award to life.

The competition has already had several notable successful EDGE winners in the creative industries, including the Trtl travel scarf, Findra cycling clothing and Stael’s Design’s Aircushion cooling system for wheelchair users.

Fiona Hislop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs said: “An exciting future lies ahead in this fast growing business sector providing opportunities internationally for our wide and diverse creative industries.”

David Shearer, Chairman, Scottish EDGE said: “There is a misconception that innovative, high-growth business have to come from the science or technology sector but we’ve had some amazing success stories with businesses from the creative industries.  This award will allow us to highlight those businesses and encourage applicants from the creative industries to come forward for support and funding from Scottish EDGE.”

Rachael Brown, CEO of the Cultural Enterprise Office said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Scottish EDGE. I believe passionately that Scotland is one of the best places in the world to start and grow a creative business. The creative sector needs to be nourished, developed and supported in order to achieve its full potential and this award demonstrates our commitment to working with creative entrepreneurs.”

Clive Gillman, Director of Creative Industries at Creative Scotland said: “We’re really pleased to be joining the Scottish EDGE partnership to support exciting new creative ideas to be developed into successful businesses. We know that Scotland has a wealth of creative talent across the performing and visual arts, design, crafts and creative technology and that there is a real appetite to turn this creative motivation into new kinds of businesses. The financial and developmental support on offer through Scottish EDGE is a great way to help transform this ambition into successful creative enterprise.”

Round 11 of the Scottish EDGE competition is now open for entries. You can find out more about the competition online, on Facebook, or on Twitter.

FAI Blog: Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland 2016-17

Fraser of Allander Institute - Today sees the publication of the latest Government Expenditure and Revenue (GERS) report.

This blog summarises some of the key headline results.

What is the headline figure?

The GERS report shows a net fiscal balance (including a geographical share of North Sea oil) in Scotland of -£13.3bn or -8.3% of Scottish GDP for 2016-17. This compares with a UK balance of -£46.2bn or -2.4% of UK GDP.

This is an improvement on the figures for 2015-16 where Scotland’s fiscal balance was -9.3%.

As we outlined in our blog here, given the outlook for the UK public finances, Scotland’s net fiscal position is projected to improve over the next few years. But – based on the latest assessments of the outlook – it will remain higher than that for the UK and settle at between 6% to 7% of Scottish GDP by 2019-20.

How does this compare to previous years?

As the chart highlights, Scotland had a relatively stronger fiscal position than the UK back in 2010-11.

But since then, this relative position has been reversed.

Today’s relative gap of 6% points (-2.4% vs. -8.3%) is the largest relative gap in the notional Scottish and UK deficit since the GERS figures were published on a consistent basis back to 1998-99.

The key reason for this shift to a weaker relative performance and that’s the fall in oil revenues. Scottish oil revenues were as high as nearly £8bn in 2011-12 but are now just £200m according to today’s publication.

Back in March 2013, the OBR were forecasting oil revenues of £4.8bn for 2016-17. In March 2013, the Scottish Government forecast oil revenues of between £4.2bn and £10.7bn for 2016-17.

For a variety of reasons, oil revenues have turned out to be much lower than most anticipated. Given the importance of such revenues to the GERS figures, this has a major bearing on the Scottish relative position.

Unfortunately, the outlook for oil revenues isn’t likely to change any time soon.

Why does the GERS methodology show Scotland having a larger negative net fiscal balance than the UK as a whole?

There are two reasons.

Firstly, according to the GERS methodology Scottish tax payers raise slightly less per head than the UK average – in the latest year this was equivalent to around £300 per head.

Secondly, spending per head for Scotland is quite a bit higher than for the UK – a difference of around £1,400 per head in 2016-17.

What about Scotland’s position compared to other UK nations and English regions?

GERS only covers Scotland and the UK. We know that the UK economy is highly unbalanced. For example, GDP data shows that areas like London and the South East are much wealthier than other parts of England – see here.

So it is interesting to see how Scotland is placed relative to other parts of the UK.

A recent ONS publication estimated the fiscal balances for the 12 Government Office Regions of the UK – that is, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English Regions.

The figures are experimental and still in development. They cover up to the year 2015-16 (so 1 year behind today’s GERS figures). It’s important to note that there will always be some minor methodological and data differences between GERS and this report.

The chart below shows the net fiscal balances per head for 2015-16.

For 2015-16, according to the ONS methodology, Scotland’s net fiscal balance per head was -£2,824. The equivalent UK figure was -£1,108.

Wales, Northern Ireland, the North West and the North East were estimated to have larger negative fiscal balances per head than Scotland. All the other parts of the UK had a relatively stronger position.

The key reason for Scotland’s ranking behind other parts of the UK is not because of lower revenues, but higher levels of spending. Indeed only London, the South East and the East of England are estimated to raise more revenue per head than Scotland.

But as the chart highlights, (alongside London) Scotland has the highest levels of spending per head outside of Northern Ireland.

Final thoughts

It is important to remember that GERS takes the current constitutional settlement as given. If the very purpose of independence is to take different choices about the type of economy and society that we live in, then a set of accounts based upon the current constitutional settlement and policy priorities will tell us little about the long-term finances of an independent Scotland.

But GERS does provide a pretty accurate picture of where Scotland is in 2016-17. In doing so, it sets a useful starting point for a discussion about the immediate choices and challenges that need to be addressed by those advocating further constitutional change.

All countries face big fiscal challenges in terms of what will replace declining revenues in the face of rising spending pressures over the next few years.

Changing the constitutional set-up doesn’t alter the fact that these fiscal challenges need to be addressed by all governments in all countries. Today’s figures show that a more autonomous Scotland will be forced to meet such challenges sooner rather than later.

Source: Fraser of Allander Institute blog

EDAS Events and CPD Courses Autumn 2017 - Book Today to Avoid Disappointment!

EDAS is offering its members and the wider economic development community a diverse series of events and CPD courses this Autumn. 

See below for full information about our upcoming programme, and book your place today to avoid disappointment! 

If you want to receive information about EDAS events direct to your inbox, you can sign up to our newsletter here. 

Thriving in the Future Global Trade Environment

Friday 8 September 

Edinburgh

9:00 - 12:30

Read more and book your place today! 

English Devolution, Economic Development and Industrial Strategy: Lessons for Scotland

Tuesday 26 September 2017

Glasgow

14:00 - 16:15

Read more and book your place today! 

Monitoring and Evaluation: Achieving Better Value for Money and Innovating from Experience

Tuesday 3 October 2017

Edinburgh

9:00 – 16:30

Read more and book your place today!

Introduction to Economic Development

Wednesday 25 -Thursday 26 October 2017

Edinburgh

9:00 – 16:30

Read more and book your place today!

Update on Policy and Practice in Economic Development

Friday 1 December 2017

9:00 – 16:30

Edinburgh

Read more and book your place today!

EDAS / SLAED Conference 2017

Thursday 2 November 

Perth Concert Hall 

Read more.

The Social Enterprise Awards Scotland 2017 - Shortlist Announced

Social Enterprise Scotland have announced the shortlisted applicants for the Social Enterprise Awards Scotland 2017:

Social Enterprise of the Year
Buth Bharraigh Ltd
Grassmarket Community Project
St Andrews First Aid & Training Supplies Ltd

One to Watch Award
Community Resources Network Scotland (CRNS Reuse Consortium)
PROJEKT 42
Social Stuff Ltd
Spirits for Good CIC
The Ally Bally Bee Project

Social Impact Award
Callander Youth Project Trust
Highlands and Islands Social Enterprise Zone 
INCH Architecture & Design Ltd / Sir Robert McAlpine

'Buy Social' - Market Builder Award
Business Gateway / City of Edinburgh Council
Community Resources Network Scotland (CRNS Reuse Consortium)
Legal Spark Law Centre

Tech for Good: Technology in Social Enterprise
Instant Neighbour
Scene Connect Ltd
Viarama

Social Enterprise Champion
Andrew Baillie, Freshsight
Liberty Bligh, The Libertie Project 
Colin Higgins, YES Works
Chris Martin, Callander Youth Project Trust
Briana Pegado, Edinburgh Student Arts Festival
Chris Thewlis, GTS Solutions, Beer for Good CIC, Spirits for Good CIC

Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in The Scottish Parliament on the evening of Tuesday 7 November.

Fraser Kelly, Chief Executive, Social Enterprise Scotland, said:

"We're delighted to announce the shortlist for the awards. We received around fifty applications of a very high standard and we look forward to submitting the shortlist to our independent judging panel. Social enterprises in every corner of Scotland are building a better economy and a fairer society. The Social Enterprise Awards Scotland is a unique opportunity for social enterprises to gain serious recognition for their achievements and dramatically raise their public profile."

To request a social enterprise news feature of any length for print, for further information or to arrange an interview about the awards, please contact: Fraser Kelly on 0131 243 2650 or fraser.kelly@socialenterprisescotland.org.uk.

Awards media partners for 2017 are: Media Co-op, MeToo! magazine, Moving Arts Scotland and The Ferret.

More information: Social Enterprise Awards Scotland

Inclusive and Sustainable Growth: Making our Economy Work for Everyone

Lively debate and a multitude of themes were discussed at this joint CRSN and RSA event, including quality of jobs, diversity, productivity and devolution.

If there was ever an indication of the breadth of the Inclusive Growth agenda, the SBI’s Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Network (CRSN) event on 15 June said it all. The event was in collaboration with the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), and in the wake of the publication of their Inclusive Growth Commission findings.

It was a pleasure to welcome thinkers, disrupters and business people working and leading the way in this space. After hearing about the Commission and findings, delivered by Atif Shafique (leading researcher for the Inclusive Growth Commission, RSA), the panel members took their positions. We were delighted to host Sheila Fazal (Director, PwC), Dr Sarah Ivory (Early Career Fellow – Climate Change and Business Strategy, University of Edinburgh Business School) and Chris Oswald, (Head of Policy and Communications, Equalities and Human Rights Commission).

The lively debate ranged over quality of jobs, low carbon, diversity, city and non-city challenges, productivity, place, automation, infrastructure, land, social structures and devolution. The topics relevant to inclusive growth came thick and fast as chair Ross Martin strove to capture as much comment as possible from a great audience.

Any one of the themes could have absorbed an independent event, but some recurring ideas emerged:

• Firstly, the evident complexity of the inclusive growth agenda. Neither reducible to soundbites nor the ‘one thing’ which the media demand – this is about system change. So achieving the depth of understanding needed means taking the ideas to wider audiences – not all of whom may agree.
• Secondly, notwithstanding PwC’s support of the IG Commission’s work, the recognition that business has not, thus far, been sufficiently inspired to engage. Yet if real progress is to be made, this is a prerequisite. “Where is the discussion on jobs and internationalisation?”, queried Liz McAreavey, CEO of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce.
• Thirdly, differing interpretations and definitions of growth. Not just of what ‘growth’ could or should mean but long-held assumptions about competition, economic success and measuring progress; all came under the spotlight.

IG is nothing if not going back to fundamentals of the purpose of an economy.

Closing the event, the Chair reflected that whatever else, there seemed to be a powerful conviction that there has to be a ‘better way’. Considering the energy in the room, the conversation seems set to continue, with a role in particular for business to help articulate tangible actions. The vibrant conversation continued over a drinks reception which was enjoyed by all.

Find out more about the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Network Visit the CRSN page »

Learn more about the RSA
Visit the RSA’s website »

Source: University of Edinburgh Business School