Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what the evidential basis is for not including the North East Scotland Regional Economic Partnership in the Local Growth Fund.

The UK Government is providing targeted funding to the places in Scotland that need it most, while simultaneously delivering the largest Block Grant settlement for the Scottish Government in the whole history of devolution, which they can use to improve general funding settlements for local government services and priorities.

The Local Growth Fund is targeting five regions that contain the local authorities with the lowest Real Disposable Household Income per capita (RDHI) in Scotland, which is an established metric for measuring spatial disparities in living standards across the country. The local authorities in the North East Scotland region had higher living standards and so did not meet the threshold for funding from this programme.

The Local Growth Fund is just one UK Government investment programme and the North East region is benefiting from more than £200m in other investments, including the North East Scotland Investment Zone; Pride in Place Programme funding for Peterhead and Aberdeen; Local Regeneration Fund projects in Peterhead and Macduff; support for the Energy Transition Zone; and the completion of the Aberdeen City Region Deal.

Other rural areas of Scotland, including the Highlands and Islands and South of Scotland, are benefitting significantly from more than £400m in UK Government investment.