A new name and a new economic strategy for the Glasgow City Region

Published: 16 February 2016

The Glasgow and Clyde Valley City Deal Cabinet has agreed two substantial new steps towards the closer integration of the eight councils in the region.

Councillors have agreed to rebrand the £1.13bn programme as the Glasgow City Region City Deal. The cabinet has also agreed to build on the success of the project by commissioning a new economic strategy for the whole city region.

The change of name from "Glasgow and the Clyde Valley City Deal" to "Glasgow City Region City Deal" reflects the fact that Glasgow has a high level of recognition and positive profile domestically and internationally.

The creation of a specific brand based around the Glasgow City region will make it easier to promote the benefits of the City Deal to inward investors and domestic businesses who stand to win work as part of the City Deal.

This is an approach which has been successfully adopted by the city region's major domestic competitors such as Manchester, which has created a single brand covering the whole of Greater Manchester.

The Cabinet has also approved the creation of a Regional Economic Strategy which will run from summer 2016 to 2030. The strategy will set out clear and coherent vision for the economic future of the region.

Speaking following the Cabinet, Councillor Mark Macmillan (Leader of Renfrewshire Council), the Cabinet's Enterprise Portfolio lead, said:

"The City Deal recognises the fact that the economies of the Glasgow City Region local authorities are completely interlinked. None of us can succeed without every part of the region working together.

"The decisions we have taken this week are a big step towards the creation of a single regional economy and no one should underestimate how significant this is. In the next few years these eight councils, which will retain their own identities, will be working towards growing the regional economy, not just tending their own back yard.

"This shows a growing maturity in the relationship between these councils. We are beginning to ignore the artificial and arbitrary boundaries put in place at reorganisation. This approach has been phenomenally successful for the big English cities and it really is time we started to catch up with the ambition we see south of the border."