The Vacant and Derelict Land Fund Programme will see work undertaken to prepare council-owned sites for use by developers and businesses bringing vacant land back into productive use and creating new jobs both during construction phase and once businesses have located in the city.
The Programme has the capacity to support the investigation and, if needed, the treatment of over 150 hectares of unoccupied land, city wide, over the next three years.
The Vacant and Derelict Land Fund Programme, 2008 -11, is funded with £13.5m from the Scottish Government and allocated to the Council for use.
Regeneration projects in the programme take in local area regeneration (Burntbroom, Nitshill), projects capable of delivering employment (London Road, Saracen Street) and work to encourage new housing developments (Maryhill, Speirs Locks and Carmyle).
Specific projects will include:
• preparing and treating 14.5 hectares for use as Commonwealth Games Athletes’ Village;
• making land available for more than 1000 houses in Canal, Nitshill and Carmyle;
• Assisting in the provision of 100 social rented houses across the city;
• providing 10,000 sq m of business accommodation at Nitshill;
• providing 15,000 sq m speculative business accommodation at Nova technology park (Robroyston) and release of further land for development;
• undertaking environmental improvement and regeneration works covering a total of 30 hectares at Burntbroom, Carmyle and Darnley;
• providing 26,500 sq m retail space and 4,500 sq m of commercial business space at Glasgow Gait (on London Road);
• site delivered for development as a recycling business park at Kenmuir Rd; and
• helping create 1600 jobs as a result of new business premises at London Road, Saracen Street, Nitshill, Maryhill and Speirs Locks.
In many instances, due to the city’s industrial legacy, the Council has to prepare land for development to make it more attractive to developers. This work can include investigating sites to see if mine shafts lie beneath, demolishing redundant buildings, clearing sites, buying adjacent land to meet a businesses requirements or providing better access to a site by installing a road.
Rate of take up and the nature of derelict sites have changed over the years. Larger, easier to develop, sites have been taken up and vacant sites are now likely to be smaller, more problematic in terms of site conditions and more expensive to develop meaning the Council must take on some of this work.
Attracting potential developers and businesses is crucial to the city as Glasgow City Council competes with neighbouring local authority areas to draw new companies into their area and it needs to help retain firms that have outgrown premises and require a bigger site.
During the past four years, since the Derelict Land Fund for Scotland was formed, 163 hectares of land has been investigated or prepared for development with 15,500 square metres of business space created (mainly at the Nova technology park in Robroyston), space made for two hundred housing units (in Camlachie in east end of Glasgow) and an estimated £46.9 million of public and private investment contributed to Glasgow’s economy.
Executive member for Development and Regeneration, Councillor George Ryan, said: “Undertaking this programme of work will not only reduce that number of vacant and derelict sites in Glasgow, but more importantly contribute to reviving areas that have been subject to neglect due to industrial decline and the changing nature of the Council’s service provision.
“These city wide projects will bring land back to productive and beneficial use while creating employment opportunities at every stage from site construction to when companies opening for business.
“The old adage ‘speculate to accumulate’ is apt in this situation as the Council must undertake the work to make these sites attractive to future developers, which will benefit the city’s economy long-term.”