Renfrewshire Council Leader Iain Nicolson has raised concerns as Renfrewshire faces losing almost £1million in funding for local employability and business development programmes.
The UK Government has announced a new Local Growth Fund (LGF) for Scotland as part of a replacement for the previous UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and the three-year programme will now determine allocations at regional level rather than by local authorities – a change from previous programmes.
A paper considered by councillors at Renfrewshire Council’s Economy and Regeneration Board outlined the changes which will result in the council requiring to use funding from its Invest in Renfrewshire programme to reduce the impact and ensure it can continue to support a substantial number of staff posts and external partners who help deliver its programmes.
Councillor Nicolson said: “Our local employability and business programmes play a key part in getting people into work in Renfrewshire and while we have been used to successive changes and cuts to our funding from successive UK Governments, this latest change would have a significant impact on the employability and business support we provide locally to support employment and those in work – especially the reduction in revenue funding which we use to pay staff and deliver services.
“Our Invest in Renfrewshire fund was created to withstand and mitigate these changes to ensure our support to Renfrewshire residents and businesses can continue. This forward planning means we will be able to divert funds from our Invest programme to support staff and external partners who help deliver valuable local employment programmes and mitigate the impact of the reduction in funding.”
The revenue budget to deliver services and employ staff will reduce year on year, with an allocation of £4.8million in 2028/29 for the whole Glasgow city region, down from £22million in 2025/26m and the overall allocation down almost £13million to £16.7million in 2028/29.
It is estimated that Renfrewshire’s current revenue allocation will reduce by approximately £1million to around £500-600k for the next financial year, with the previous funding representing around 30% of the Council’s total employability funding and approximately 50% of business development funding.
Renfrewshire also missed out in recent UK Government Pride in Place Fund awards, which are programmes aimed to support improvements to town centres, public spaces and leisure facilities.
Photo: Renfrewshire Council Leader Iain Nicolson
Photo Credit: Renfrewshire Council