Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal
An overview of the funding, the Borderlands Place Programme and the other projects being delivered in the Scottish Borders
What is the Deal?
The Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal is a cross border agreement for investment into "Borderlands" local authorities, those being, Cumbria, Carlisle and Northumberland in the North of England, with Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders in the South of Scotland.
The Deal represents a total package of £452million of fresh investment into the Borderlands area, and is not only the first cross-border Deal, it is also the largest geographical area of any regional growth deal negotiated with the UK and Scottish Governments.
The Deal recognises that the area has strengths in agriculture, hospitality, leisure and recreation, but seeks to tackle the three main socio-economic challenges of our area:
- narrowing the productivity gap
- increasing the working age population
- achieving inclusive growth for all.
The four main strands for development fall under the titles of:
- Enabling Infrastructure
- Improving Places
- Supporting Business Innovation and Skills
- Encouraging Green Growth
Under these themes there are stand alone projects being developed against an established outcome, and seven programmes, which sub divide into deliverable strands of work against the over arching objectives. (see What else is happening? section)
©Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal - Delivery Matrix
The aim is to be a platform for investment in the region, to ensure that the Borderlands is an attractive place to live and work, developing skills to support emerging technologies and sustainable enterprise, with infrastructure to allow the area to prosper.
Place Programme
The Borderlands Place Programme is one of strands of work that make up the programmes that will be delivered under the Deal.
It focuses on four Scottish Borders towns which were prioritised for this investment package based on the multiple deprivation index. Those towns are:
- Eyemouth
- Galashiels
- Hawick
- Jedburgh
We often refer to these in shorthand as "Borderlands Towns" and this is simply in reference to their status as the nominated towns in this programme.
The Borderlands Towns are eligible for investment from a £7.25 million pot over 7 years (24/25 - 30/31) which can be used for a range of eligible interventions, those are:
- Purchase and assembly of land and buildings
- Remediation of vacant and derelict sites
- Property development and enhancement, including schemes to encourage private, public and third sector investment in improving buildings, re-modelling business premises and conversion of buildings to new uses to support the repurposing of towns (eg. residential, leisure, community uses)
- Development of arts and cultural, visitor economy, community and skills and education facilities
- Enhancement of shop, business and commercial public facing fronts
- Development of the upper floors of buildings for affordable housing and other uses
To access the funding available under the Borderlands Place Programme communities are required to create a Local Place Plan , which outlines the thematic ideas and aspirations of the community for the betterment of their place. This would be followed by a Town Investment Plan which looks at how the Borderlands funding could be spent, along with opportunities for investment in a wider range of projects (out with the eligibility criteria) by accessing other funding from local and national government, third sector and private sources. In order to create these plans, communities need to get organised, and there are a few different ways to do that, and form what could be loosely described as a Town Team.
Updates on Borderlands Place Programme and the wider Place Making work across the Scottish Borders can be found here .
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What else is happening?
Full details of all the projects being delivered under the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal can be found on the dedicated website .
Within the Scottish Borders there are a number of projects at various stages of development.
- Borders Railway Extension Feasibility Study
Funded by Transport Scotland, an outline business case is being developed to consider the feasibility of extending the Borders Railway from Tweedbank to Carlisle, taking in Hawick. This has the potential to better connect the Borders with urban centres in Scotland and England, and connect up with the HS2 project down South.
- 7stanes
The 7stanes investment is aimed at updating trails and infrastructure that will encourage new visitors to the sites, maintaining and building upon the reputation as a prime mountain biking area. The investment will provide economic benefits to the sites, in places like Newcastleton, and ensure the long term sustainability of the product.
- Mountain Bike Innovation Centre
The Mountain Bike Innovation Centre will see a world class research facility sited in Innerleithen, created to support business innovation, production and testing within the mountain bike sector. The project is led by South of Scotland Enterprise in partnership with Scottish Borders Council and Napier University.
The Innovation Centre will be complimented by the development of an adventure bike park that will permit real world testing of products, and attract mountain bikers and visitors to the area.
- Digital Infrastructure Programme
The Digital Infrastructure Programme will support the other programmes of work delivered under the Deal, to maximise the opportunities from emerging technology, such as 5G.
Borderlands Digital Infrastructure Programme Problem Statement
Within this remit, the digital investment will focus on "no one left" behind in terms of connectivity, and will actively manage the various Scottish and UK wide investment programmes currently being being delivered under a number of different programmes.
R100 and Project Gigabit are expanding the cabled network, seeking to deliver super fast and gigabit capable speeds to all households and businesses. Further details of what this looks like in your area can be viewed here, including a list of eligible properties for vouchers to upgrade broadband in your area.
The Scottish Government 4G Infill (SG4I) programme and Shared Rural Network (SRN) are expanding the 4G coverage across the Scottish Borders, to improve signal, encourage more operators to cover a wider area, and eliminate "not spots" - areas that previously had no coverage at all.
The Digital Programme will actively monitor these projects and help to connect communities with opportunities to maximise digital technologies.
- Energy Investment Programme
The first phase of the programme was the creation of a master plan for the Borderlands regions, to identify the areas of investment needed to support net zero aspirations. Following this work, opportunities for energy projects are currently being identified.
- Destination Tweed (Destination Borderlands)
Destination Tweed is a 113 mile trail from "source to sea" running from Moffat in Dumfies in Galloway, taking in a plethora of Scottish Borders communities before eventually concluding in Northumberland in Berwick Upon Tweed.
The project is led by Tweed Forum and developed in collaboration with Scottish Borders Council with funding from the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, National Lottery and Sustrans to realise the ambitions of cultural, river and landscape enhancements.
Part of the project under the Creative Arts Business Network (CABN) is Connecting Threads which is the cultural strand of Destination Tweed supported by the Southern Uplands Partnership (SUP) to collaborate with communities to create a 5-year cultural programme based around the Destination Tweed infrastructure, inspired by the habitats and heritage of the area.
Website: Destination Tweed – Tweed Forum
- Business Infrastructure Projects at Coldstream and Hawick
The Business Infrastructure programme looks to expand the supply of modern industrial premises in the South of Scotland to encourage private sector investment. Within the business case there are plans to build business units at Coldstream and service land for business use in Hawick.
- Natural Capital
The project underpins the development of the rural economy and supports clean growth. It will develop trials and sector strategies to capture the benefits of the regions natural capital. There are five projects across the South of Scotland:
- Agri Environment Pilot - looking at agricultural resilience as a join venture between farmers, landowners, Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders Council.
- Woodland Pilot - identifying alternative revenue models associated with woodland creation and integrated land use.
- Marine Pilot - based on the sustainability of the economy of the two shores of Solway.
- Investment Pilot - developing a natural capital investment plan for the region.
- Data Pilot - exploring digital mapping of the Borderlands natural capital assets and demonstrating opportunities of "SMART" technology solutions and a data driven approach.
- Rural Innovation and Skills
The programme was originally planned to develop the South of Scotland Skills and Learning Network to deliver high quality teaching across the region. The scope of the project is currently under review to offer the maximum benefits to the widest scope of potential learners.
