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Building Better Cities: Delivering Growth and Opportunities
BUILDING SUCCESSFUL CITIES
Our cities are central to building a better Scotland. They will be at the forefront of how we respond to the key challenges of demographic, economic, social and technological change. The policy challenge for our cities reflects the key themes of national policies, but cities also bring particular challenges. Our cities are distinct from each other, and each requires a distinctive policy response.
The policy challenge - promoting growth, opportunities and sustainability
Cities developed as regional centres to provide a focus for commerce and provide employment. They will continue to thrive if they can adapt and change to meet new economic challenges and continue to generate employment. This ability to innovate distinguishes success from stagnation. It distinguishes those cities that can build on their history and geography from those that are bound by them. The ability to innovate is built on a diverse, productive economy, a skilled and flexible workforce, a strong dynamic research and creative base, and on effective connections within and outwith the city.
The dominant scenario for our cities is likely to be vacancies and shortages of workers. The number of 20-39 year olds in Scotland is projected to fall by 15% over the first decade of this century. This provides an economic case for bringing those people in our cities who have lost touch with the labour market back into it, alongside the already compelling social case for doing so. This will require resolving the barriers facing workless and under-skilled households, disconnected from employment opportunities.
We aim to give all Scotland's children the best start in life, raising performance in our schools and ensuring that all of our young people leave full-time education with the confidence, skills, knowledge and motivation they need to find employment and live fruitful and rewarding lives. Access to quality education and training is the key to unlocking the potential of Scotland's young people. This will encourage and support lifelong learning and widen access to skills and opportunities.
Scotland's overriding transport challenge for the next decade is tackling congestion in and around Scotland's major metropolitan areas. We are commuting further to work, and buying more cars. Traffic growth is projected at 27% by 2021, without taking into account policy effects and changes in infrastructure and services. Our individual choices are creating collective problems, which in turn feed back to become individual problems - stress, harmful emissions, reduced quality of life. Congestion is a consequence of rapid business expansion, but infrastructure bottlenecks soon become an inhibitor of further growth and require a balanced policy response.
Cities not only provide the physical infrastructure for communities; they provide through traditions, culture and behaviours the social infrastructure too. This "social capital" contributes to the success of human and physical capital. Strong communities ensure that the economy is able to exploit the widest possible range of talent across the population of the city. Strong and culturally confident communities are the basis for individual success and the development of individual "capabilities" to learn, thrive and live well.
At present, Scottish cities display patterns of ill health that are common to most cities in the developed world, but in some cases we display them to a greater degree. The remit of the Cities Review did not include health, but it can contribute directly in the solution to the health challenges we face. Across the urban central belt of Scotland, overall life expectancy is shorter than it is in any other region of the European Union. Life expectancy in Drumchapel is 11 years less than in Bearsden. Responding to these facts requires excellent health care provision, effective measures of health improvement built around community involvement, and a wider policy response which this statement outlines.
While Scotland's overall population is declining, social change means that the number of households will continue to increase overall by 12% over the next 15 years. The patterns of change will lead to strong demand for housing in some areas but not in others. New homes will be required, and existing homes will need to be maintained. This raises different and new policy challenges for government; it increases its role as regulator and influencer, as its role as direct provider reduces.
Strong communities need high quality housing, and more. A high quality of life and a lively "city buzz" encourages people to work, invest and live in the city. "Quality of life" is based on the performance of local schools, safety in communities, the adequacy and appearance of public space, involvement in local decision making etc. It is clear that "neighbourhood satisfaction" varies significantly between and across our cities, with systematic evidence of disatisfaction with local neighbourhoods in disadvantaged areas.
Strong communities should also be sustainable ones. Our treatment of waste - and our dependence on landfill - contributes to our poor environmental record, but also represents an opportunity for us to improve the environment significantly for the future. This is especially true in our cities. We must ensure we do not compromise future generations in the way past generations have left a legacy of environmental problems across Scotland. This legacy has made its mark on disadvantaged communities who feel they experience a less healthy, more unpleasant environment than others, compounding the other economic and social disadvantages they face. Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and Dundee suffer from Scotland's most severe derelict land problems. This is blighting the quality of life of residents and constraining economic development.
Responding to these challenges will need effective public service delivery to support growth and opportunities. This requires collective action, characterised by collective trust. The future of our cities is not the sole responsibility of any single body. There needs to be a shared responsibility and partnership between the cities and the neighbouring authorities. The Executive, local authorities, public agencies, the private sector, the communities themselves all have a stake in the outcome.
Therefore, to promote growth and opportunities, we aim for:
- Working Cities which adapt creatively to economic change and innovate to improve.
- Learning Cities that grow talent, provide lifelong opportunities and attract talent from elsewhere.
- Connected Cities which aid accessibility for goods and people and encourage sustainable choices.
- Living Cities which provide good quality, affordable housing for strong communities in a sustainable environment.
- Lively Cities which provide a "city buzz" in culture, tourism, shopping and leisure.
- Sustainable Cities which manage their resource use, energy and travel.
- Well-governed Cities with community involvement and strategic national engagement.
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