Scottish Cities Alliance

In 2022-23, the Scottish Cities Alliance partners worked with Savills to identify key levers required across the Scottish cities to enable them to increase residential capacity and address issues related to vacant and derelict land in their city centres. The report responds to two of the strategic objectives of the City Centre Recovery Taskforce Report and was funded by Glasgow and Stirling on behalf of the Alliance partners.

At a national level in Scotland, the Savills Report also aligns with the objectives of the National Planning Framework 4, which advocates for town and city centre development. Specifically, the framework instructs planning authorities to actively pursue the provision of a proportion of their housing land requirements in city and town centres.

Priority Actions Identified

The research pinpointed a number of priority actions for the Scottish city local authorities to consider internally as well as explore further with both the Scottish and UK Government.

For a summary of the priority actions and recommendations, please refer to two summary reports separately covering increasing residential capacity in city centres and vacant and derelict land as well as the summary actions/recommendations sheet summarising the shared priority actions and recommendations across both reports detailed below.

Next Steps 

In addition to the city local authorities considering how they will address the report recommendations internally, the Alliance is engaging closely with Paul McLennan MSP, Minister for Housing, who has offered to involve the City Leaders in discussions he is having with investors and maintain an active dialogue with them on the policy and financial levers cities require to de-risk investment in city centre housing and living.

The Alliance continues to provide a space where cities and governments can exchange best practice in tackling these combined challenges including as part of a programme it ran with the Connected Places Catapult and British Irish Embassy in June and at our Leadership, CEO and Delivery Group meetings.

Savills Report into Increasing Residential Capacity in City Centres

Savills Report into Vacant and Derelict Land

Summary of Priority Actions

Report of the City Centre Recovery Task Force