Scotland's biggest local authority has responded to concerns about the condition of its city centre by launching a new improvement fund.
Glasgow City Council has released a £400,000 fund to improve the look and feel of the city and find new uses for vacant property, as it seeks to attract new businesses and visitors.
The move comes amid continuing disquiet about the state of key areas in the city in the wake of the pandemic and ongoing impact of hybrid working, and the decline of its traditional retail offering. Sauchiehall Street has been the focus of much of this frustration owing largely to the impact of protracted works to improve the public realm, which the council says will largely be complete before Christmas.
The authority said today that its city centre improvement fund will provide individual grants of up to £20,000 from the overall funding block.
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The pot is split into two streams. The meantime use fund has been developed to encourage talks between businesses and organisations not currently located in the city centre and the owners of vacant properties. It will target key areas such as Sauchiehall Street and Argyle Street and encourage the use of vacant ground-floor properties, with solutions such as pop-up shops, short-term leases and offers for the third sector.
The council hopes recent regulatory changes, which have reduced empty property relief, may encourage owners to look for tenants.
This part of the fund will be open to independent businesses and other organisations, with the owners of vacant or underused properties also able to apply for grants to help them ready premises for new occupants.
The meantime use fund has been created to improve the range and mix of businesses operating in the city centre and to reinvigorate areas affected by changes to retail habits and office demand. It aims to deliver temporary new uses for sites across the city centre, reactivate vacant ground floor properties, and reduce the number of vacant units.
The minor improvement fund is open to all city centre stakeholders and is focused on enhancing the look and feel of the area, improving footfall and supporting the aspiration of City Centre Strategy to increase its residential population and attract more visitors.
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Councillor Angus Millar, convener for city centre recovery at Glasgow City Council, said: “The city centre improvement grant fund offers the chance for businesses and local organisations to bring new life to empty units, increase footfall, and help the ongoing work to improve the look and feel of the area. The fund opens to applications this month and I’d encourage those with proposals that meet the aims of the project and believe they can make a genuine positive contribution to our city centre to apply.”
Total grants of £200,000 will be available for each stream, with a maximum award of £20,000 per project. Grants will be issued as valid applications are received, the council said.
The intervention by Glasgow City Council comes shortly after a senior figure from the Scottish commercial property sector hit out at the condition of the city centre. Gillian Stewart, chair of the British Council for Offices in Scotland and a director of Michael Laird Architects, said in an interview with The Herald that there is a "real lack of care in the city centre and the general condition of the public realm is just embarrassing". Ms Stewart said: “I actually quite often don’t feel safe in the city centre."
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In response, the council said that staff were working seven days a week to clean the streets. Addressing concerns over the Sauchiehall Street project, a spokesman added: “We expect the vast majority of the work on Sauchiehall Precinct to be complete ahead of Christmas with tree planting due to take place in the spring.
“Both the contractor and council officers continue to engage with local businesses on the progress of the works, which will create a far more attractive environment for people to visit and shop when complete."
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