Elected Member Briefing Note 2023, Issue 89
About this briefing note
Report by: David Littlejohn, Head of Planning and Development
Date: 6 September 2023
Subject: Place Based Investment Programme
Responsible Officer: Karlene Doherty, Vacancy Property Development Officer/ John McCrone, Business & Place Manager
Details
Purpose
This Briefing Note provides an update on spend relating to projects allocated funding from the Place Based Investment Programme and outlines further projects which have been allocated funding from the 2023/24 and 2024/25 allocation.
Briefing information
Background
As previously reported to the Environment, Infrastructure and Economic Development Committee (Report No 22/225 refers), the main objectives of the Scottish Government's Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP) are to:
- align place-based initiatives and establish a coherent local framework to implement the Place Principle;
- support place policy ambitions such as town centre revitalisation, community led regeneration, 20-minute neighbourhoods and Community Wealth Building;
- ensure that all place-based investments are shaped by the needs and aspirations of local communities;
- accelerate ambitions for net zero carbon, wellbeing, and inclusive economic development, tackling inequality and disadvantage, and community involvement.
These criteria align with the Council's own priorities to reduce poverty and inequality, promote sustainable growth. It also demonstrates our continued commitment to working in partnership with our communities.
The programme objectives are designed to be achieved by investing in projects focussed on:
- rural places with smaller populations, dependent on larger geographical areas for support, for example:
- small towns with a limited range of non-specialised facilities,
- villages with very limited, or non-existent, access to facilities.
- urban places with sizeable populations, for example:
- regional centres with extensive provision supporting a wide geographical area,
- larger towns with a comprehensive range of dedicated services and facilities.
- individual neighbourhoods with limited access to relevant local provision.
The available funds to Perth and Kinross were allocated as follows:
| Year | Overall allocation (£m) | Perth and Kinross share (£m) |
|---|---|---|
| 2021/22 | 38 | 1.265 |
| 2022/23 | 33 | 1.098 |
| 2023/24 | 23 | 0.766 |
| 2024/25 | 23 | 0.766 |
| 2025/26 | 23 | 0.766 |
| TOTALS | £140m | est. £4.661m |
The PBIP grant can be claimed for eligible capital expenditure incurred by local authorities or third parties. The grant is for expenditure additional to that which is already, or would otherwise, be allocated to the budget of each financial year and should not substitute for existing spend. The grant may also be used to fund third party capital expenditure either directly, or through the provision of grants to third parties (public sector bodies, private sector bodies or individuals). The grant must be committed in the financial year it applies to. For the financial year of 2023/24, it is expected that expenditure will be undertaken, or contracts signed or commenced, by 31 March 2024. This is a challenging timescale for capital projects.
Following discussion by members, the Environment, Infrastructure & Economic Development Committee awarded funding of £1,098,000 to five projects in September 2022:
- Rannoch Hub - £308,000
- Aberfeldy Tourism Infrastructure - £275,000
- Self-Catering Accommodation, Cultybraggan Camp - £25,000
- PLUS, Perth Civic Space, Ropemakers Close - £20,000
- Clachan Bar and Quality Café - £470,000
Prior to grant acceptance, Comrie Development Trust decided not to proceed with the proposed self-catering accommodation project at Cultybraggan Camp at this time due a number of external factors and were advised to consider requesting funding for future years should they wish to proceed with the project. Due to the risk of having to return unspent money to the Scottish Government and known funding need elsewhere, the Service Management Team approved reallocation of £25,000 from the self-catering accommodation project to Rannoch Hub.
Opportunities for alignment of funding between Scottish Government grant schemes and UK Government grant schemes have been adopted where possible:
- The UK Shared Prosperity Fund which provides revenue and capital funding and is available from 2022-2025. The primary aim of the fund is to empower communities working in co-operation with local authorities to deliver locally identified priorities across 3 themes: Community and Place; Supporting Local Business; and People and Skills.
- UK Community Ownership fund which is a challenge fund aiming to support community groups to take ownership of assets which are at risk of being lost to the community. The fund operates from 2021-25.
- The long-established Regeneration Capital Grant Fund which is a competitive fund that provides significant funding for capital projects led or sponsored by local authorities and targeted at the most deprived urban and rural areas across Scotland.
- The Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme which is a competitive fund that operates from 2021-26. It provides significant funding for capital projects and seeks to tackle persistent vacant and derelict land through low carbon, community-led, place-based approaches.
- Rural Community Led Local Development Fund which builds on the legacy of LEADER. This fund aims to test new approaches to delivering community-led local development through place-based partnerships. Projects supported by this funding must advance equality, inclusion, and diversity.
There are also potential opportunities to align funding and maximise resource support for projects with:
- National Lottery Fund
- Tay Cities Region Deal
- Capital programme
- Revenue capital grant support for property via Vacant Property/ Adapt Your Property / Housing Grants
- Environmental Challenge Fund
- Community Investment Fund, Participatory Budgeting
- City Heritage Fund.
The Environment, Infrastructure & Economic Development Committee agreed that an open application process should be followed for future years' PBIP funding allocations.
The open application process undertaken in May 2023 welcomed 16 expressions of interest. It was advertised through the Community Planning Partnership's funding bulletin and the External Funding Team's Community Forum. The open application process has enabled a pipeline of projects to be developed, with many projects identifying areas for development and support prior to application resubmission in future years. The pipeline of future projects enables officers to align support and wider funding opportunities to these projects.
Projects were assessed on deliverability within required timescale; projected outcomes which would deliver the aims of the Place Based Investment Programme; need for funding to augment other funding and organisational capacity. Following assessment, eight projects have now been identified as priorities for investment.
Priority projects for investment
The table provides an update on spend relating to the previous PBIP funded projects, and also outlines spend of Transforming Cities Fund (TCF) funding allocated to the same projects. Spend to date indicates positive progress in all projects. Rannoch Hub has recently begun works onsite. Aberfeldy Tourism Infrastructure recently completed works onsite. PLUS, Perth Civic Space is outlined in more detail below. The Clachan Bar and Quality Café demolition and site clearance works has commenced this week.
| Project | Total grant award | TCF grant | Total TCF spend | % TCF spend to date | PBIP grant | Total PBIP spend | % PBIP spend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drummond Arms, Crieff | 940,000 | 600,000 | 600,000 | 100 | 340,000 | 340,000 | 100 |
| Strathmore Community Hub | 762,000 | 637,000 | 637,000 | 100 | 125,000 | 125,000 | 100 |
| Loch Leven Car Park | 855,000 | 820,000 | 820,000 | 100 | 35,000 | 34,291 | 98 |
| Wi-Fi Project - Comrie, Scone, Kinross, Alyth, Coupar Angus | 80,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 100 | 30,000 | 30,000 | 100 |
| Letham Hub, Perth | 735,000 | 735,000 | 735,000 | 100 | |||
| Rannoch Hub | 333,000 | 333,000 | 46,908 | 14 | |||
| Aberfeldy Tourism Infrastructure | 275,000 | 275,000 | 266,276 | 97 | |||
| PLUS, Perth Civic Space, Ropemakers Close | 20,000 | 20,000 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Clachan and Quality Cafe | 470,000 | 470,000 | 5,056 | 1 | |||
| Total | 4,470,000 | 2,107,000 | 2,107,000 | 2,363,000 | 1,580,519 |
| Project | Total PBIP funding request | PBIP funding 2023/24 | PBIP funding 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower City Mills | £200,000 | £200,000 | |
| Y-Centre | £200,000 | £200,000 | |
| Millhaugh - Phase 1 | £108,000 | £108,000 | |
| Rannoch Hub | £450,000 | £300,000 | £150,000 |
| Blair Atholl Village Hall Nature Garden | £15,000 | £15,000 | |
| PLUS, Perth Civic Space, Ropemakers Close | £49,000 | £49,000 | |
| Renovation of Hut 47, Cultybraggan Camp | £60,400 | £60,400 | |
| Longforgan Community Hub | £40,000 | £40,000 | |
| Total | £1,122,400 | £757,400 | £365,000 |
| Funding available | £766,000 | £766,000 |
More information on projects
Lower City Mills
Perth & Kinross Heritage Trust is undertaking a conservation and refurbishment project of Lower City Mills, a Category A listed mill within Perth City Centre. The property is held in the Perth Common Good Fund and has been leased to PKHT on a long-term benevolent basis, subject to repair and improvement from leverage of external funding. This will secure a sustainable, socially and economically productive future for the building. The capital works include energy saving retro-fit measures, as well as a micro hydro-electric scheme to harvest energy from the city lade. Once works are complete the mill will open to the public as a visitor attraction, with public amenities including kitchen/café, external seating areas, flexible meeting spaces, and bookable rooms.
Match funding is currently being secured from several funders including UK Shared Prosperity Fund (£150k), the National Lottery Heritage Fund (£1.4M), Historic Environment Scotland (£500k) and The Gannochy Trust (£350k). The Trust also plans to make a significant contribution from their own reserves (£450k). Project estimated costs are £3.17M. The contribution from PBIP of £200k from 2024/25 allocation will allow project commencement in 2022/23 and completion in 2024/25.
Y-Centre
The Y-Centre is an ambitious project in Perth City Centre to bring a historic C-listed church and neighbouring derelict tenement building back into use through repair and renovation to become the home of YMCA Tayside's activities.
The building will become a community facility for young people from across Perth & Kinross, delivering activities focusing on development programmes and opportunities for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. The facility will also provide accompanying short-term and transitional residential accommodation for vulnerable young people.
The project has been co-designed and developed with young people and is creating skills development opportunities during construction. The capital works include installation of energy saving and generation measures to ensure the historic building is resource efficient for the future. Once operational it will also be home to YMCA Tayside's two social enterprises.
Estimated costs are £5.49M. The project has secured significant funding from Scottish Government's RCGF (£2.1M inclusive of £380k additional resource recently approved to enable project completion with increased site costs), UK Shared Prosperity Fund, UK Community Ownership Fund (£250k), Perth City Heritage Fund (£250k) and a range of external funders. The contribution from PBIP of £200k will allow project completion in 2023/24.
Millhaugh - Phase 1
Alyth Development Trust's Millhaugh project will bring a long-term derelict former sawmill site back into use through development of an eco-friendly, covered, multi-use outdoor community venue. The project will deliver local regeneration, drive eco-tourism to the area and creates a community owned and managed facility. It will also open access to the Den of Alyth and delivers on several key community aspirations from the Alyth Community Action Plan.
The project has secured funding from The Scottish Land Fund (£67k), the Scottish Government's Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Fund (£94k) and are contributing from their own reserves. Project estimated costs are £282k. The contribution from PBIP of £108,000 will allow project commencement and completion during 2023/24.
Rannoch Hub
Rannoch Community Trust is transforming the former Outdoor Centre in Kinloch Rannoch into an exciting multi-use venue to serve at the heart of the Rannoch Community. The building will be turned into a Community Hub and social enterprise café/bar that will provide free business and leisure facilities to the socially isolated, remote community. The Hub is being renovated in an environmentally sustainable manner, reclaiming and reusing materials, whilst installing energy efficiency and generation measures as part of the works. It will be a self-sustaining community owned initiative developing community wealth through creating local employment and volunteering opportunities whilst catering to the needs of locals and visitors to the area. This project was awarded £308k in 2022/23, with a grant increase of £25k due to reallocation of other funds and known funding need.
Due to construction inflation between cost estimate and tender, tender costs were significantly greater than originally estimated. The project has secured funding from a number of bodies and is in the process of bridging the remaining funding gap. Funders include Scottish Land Fund (£60k), UK Community Ownership Fund (£275k), UK Shared Prosperity Fund (£50k), Paths for All (£130k), and The Gannochy Trust (£30k) as well as private trusts and local donors. In order to secure already confirmed funding, the project has commenced, and project costs are expected to be £1,557,500.
The project requires funding of £450k (£300k 2023/24 and £150k 2024/25) to enable the full project to be delivered. This results in a combined PBIP intervention rate of 50%.
Blair Atholl Village Hall Nature Garden
The Blair Atholl in Bloom Group, in partnership with the Take a Pride in Perth & Kinross Association, plan to develop a Nature Garden in the grounds of the community owned Blair Atholl Village Hall. The currently untidy and overgrown site will be transformed into a communal outdoor space, developed with particular focus on supporting biodiversity and creating a safe, interactive outdoor learning environment to educate about the benefits of horticulture and local growing.
Project estimated costs are £65,000. Securing of match funding is underway from a range of funders, including the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund (£24k), Enchanted Forest Community Fund (£2.5k) PKC Community Environment Challenge Fund (£10k) and the National Lottery (£10k). The contribution from PBIP of £15,000 from 2024/25 allocation will allow project commencement and completion in 2024/25.
PLUS, Perth Civic Space, Ropemakers Close
Local mental health and wellbeing charity PLUS Perth is creating an indoor Civic Space within the city centre which will be open daily for local people interested in art, film, music, dance and other sociable pursuits. They have recently taken ownership of the disused public toilet building in Ropemakers Close and propose to renovate, bringing it back into use and uplifting the immediate surroundings - aligning with and delivering positive impact towards the broader vennel improvement proposals throughout the city. The project will tackle inequalities through cultural participation and indirectly address antisocial behaviour by creating an active managed facility in the area, which will support the surrounding economy.
This project was awarded £20k in 2022/23. Due to construction inflation between cost estimate and tender, tender costs were significantly greater than originally estimated. The project has secured funding from the several external grant funders and is in the process of securing the remaining funding gap. Funders include SSE, The Gannochy Trust, Leng Charitable Trust, a crowdfunding campaign and a significant contribution from PLUS P&K's own reserves. Project costs are estimated to be at £146k. The additional PBIP funding of £49k will enable the full project to be delivered. This brings the combined PBIP intervention rate to 47%.
Renovation of Hut 47, Cultybraggan Camp
Perth & Kinross Duke of Edinburgh's Award Association in partnership with Comrie Development Trust plans to renovate Nissen Hut 47 at Cultybraggan Camp to meet increasing demand for the Association's Starfish Way Activities. The activities provide day and residential respite opportunities for young people with additional support needs from across Perth and Kinross who are at risk of developing long-term mental health issues and disengaging from education or not achieving positive life destinations. Please note, this project is different to that awarded funding in 2022/23 which proposed to expand the self-catering accommodation offering at Cultybraggan Camp in Huts 30-33.
The project will invest in the B-listed community owned asset, through sympathetic renovation and internal adaptation. Local contractors, businesses and volunteers will be engaged through the capital work and operation of the facility. The long-term lease and onsite activity will provide an income stream to the Development Trust, generating community wealth.
Project estimated costs are £135,000. Several sources of external grant funding support have been confirmed with the remaining match funding in the process of being secured. Funders include Wooden Spoon (£34.5k), PKC Health & Wellbeing Fund (£1k), The Gannochy Trust and a significant contribution from the Association themselves. The contribution from PBIP of £60,400 will allow project commencement and completion in 2023/24.
Longforgan Community Hub
The community owned Longforgan Bowling Club is being re-established as an inclusive community hub, providing facilities for a range of community-based uses. To enable this transition, building fabric repairs and internal adaptations are required.
The community hub will provide facilities for a number of community organisations, with a focus on intergenerational activities which reduce isolation and create a culture of learning and volunteering, contributing to community resilience. Through income generation, the facility will continue to be operationally self-sustaining.
Project estimated costs are £80,000. Securing of external match funding is underway from the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund. The contribution from PBIP of £40,000 will allow project commencement and completion in 2023/24.
Future years
It is intended to carry out the open application process again for the remaining two years of the Place Based Investment Programme. This process has allowed alignment of projects and allocations to be made in conjunction with UK Shared Prosperity Funding and Rural Community Led Local Development Funding, a process which is now fostering a pipeline of future projects.
The process supports the principles of the Council's Corporate Plan priority of working in partnership with communities and supports project feasibility by enabling projects to begin at an earlier stage in the year.
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