Final draft of new City Centre Strategy considered by council

Published: 5 March 2023

The draft strategy for Glasgow city centre for the rest of the decade was today (5 March) considered by a council committee.

The City Centre Strategy 2024-30 will become the 'plan of plans' for Glasgow city centre and will rest on three pillars - A Place to Live; Front Door to Innovation; and Magnetic Experience. These three pillars are described as follows:

• Magnetic Experience: the development of more compelling reasons to visit, shop and enjoy the city centre;
• Front Door to Innovation: creating opportunities to welcome digital, life sciences, climate science and creative industries into a mix which converges with arts, engineering, and business; and
• A Place to Live: a place-based approach to regeneration which responds to climate issues and respects planetary boundaries. It is inclusive, balanced and connected with amenities to support a growing population.

The new strategy outlines Priority Actions and a summary action plan to support of each of the pillars.

The CCS 2014-19 was the first phase of a 10-year strategy for the city centre, after being halted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the new draft strategy now transitions into its second five-year phase, which has an emphasis on outcome-focused delivery.

Public consultation on the draft City Centre Strategy (CCS) in late 2023 showed strong support for the proposals, particularly for making more use of the river, supporting the business economy, the repurposing of property to more productive and sustainable uses, and encouraging more people to live in the city centre. The responses to the consultation informed this latest draft of the strategy.

The City Centre Taskforce (CCTF) will remain as the strategic oversight group for the CCS, and recent work partnership carried out by the CCTF includes the delivery of the city's first multi-partner, multi-modal public transport campaign over December 2023 and January 2024, raising awareness of the main public transport options available in the evening and night-time economy. In addition, new consumer and business surveys have been commissioned to understand the pandemic's lasting impact on consumer and business behaviour in terms of supply and demand factors affecting use of the evening/night-time economy and associated transport options.

Other programmes of work which will contribute to the delivery of the CCS, for example work taking place at the council's Sustainable Glasgow team around greening the city, will be reported to the CCTF at appropriate points. The council is also establishing a new approach to managing development activity with officers meeting regularly to share updated information with each other and to create tools which will improve the developer/investor experience in Glasgow.

Over the past five years, Glasgow city centre has received significant public sector investment (over £200million) and £120million is already committed to ongoing projects that will span the duration of the new strategy. It is anticipated that a further £5million in funding will be required to support the delivery of the CCS 2024 - 30 priority actions plan.

Councillor Angus Millar, Convener for City Centre Recovery at Glasgow City Council and co-chair of the City Centre Taskforce, said: "The City Centre Strategy sets out our vision for the future, and will form the basis of partnership working between the public and private sectors as we work towards a more vibrant, greener and mixed-use city centre. From the Avenues programme to our plans for the Golden Z and projects across the local neighbourhoods of the city centre, the strategy contains a range of actions which will help transform the city centre.  Today's consideration of these plans paves the way towards a decision on its approval and adoption later this month."

The draft Glasgow City Centre Strategy 2024-30 can be found at: City Centre Strategy 2024-2030.

A decision on the approval of the City Centre Strategy 2024-30 will be taken by the council's City Administration committee on 21 March.