Rural Growth Deal

Progress update

Our £70 million Rural Growth Deal for Argyll and Bute continues to progress. We are pleased to provide a progress update here:

• Progress update - March 2024
• Progress update - December 2023
• Progress update - September 2023
• Progress update - May 2023
• Progress update - January 2023
• Progress update - March 2022
• Progress update - June 2022
• Progress update - September 2022

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What is the Rural Growth Deal?

The Rural Growth Deal (RGD) is a 10-year programme that will deliver £70 million of investment to develop Argyll and Bute’s economic potential into a successful future for the area.

The Scottish and UK Governments have each allocated £25 million to the programme, and the council and its partners will contribute at least £20 million of match funding.

What will it achieve?

The RGD will create opportunities for people living in Argyll and Bute and attract future investment by increasing productivity, growing the working-age population, addressing key infrastructure and skills gaps and delivering a more inclusive economy. Through the programme, we aim to:

• Deliver at least 300 additional jobs
• Create 6,500 m2 of new business space
• Deliver training opportunities to over 6,000 students and individuals
• Support local businesses to thrive
• Construct new housing and worker accommodation to help address the local housing emergency
• Generate over 70,000 additional visitors to the area per annum

How will this happen?

The programme brings together partners committed to delivering inclusive economic growth. We consulted our communities and partner organisations to put together a list of proposals based on achieving three things:

• Connecting: our high-value business sectors with national and international business markets; our local economic successes with national strategic priorities
• Attracting: additional skills, training and learning opportunities; new residents, visitors and businesses
• Growing: doing more of what works and making more of our natural and built resources

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Investment themes

Our RGD proposals are about placing investment where it will best develop Argyll and Bute as a successful region and economic driver for Scotland and the UK. Our proposals are underpinned by the RGD’s seven investment themes:

1. Tourism – Creating a World Class Visitor Destination
2. Creating a Low Carbon Economy
3. Rural Skills Accelerator Programme
4. Housing to Attract Economic Growth
5. Clyde Engineering and Innovation Cluster
6. West Coast UAV Logistics and Training Hub
7. Marine Aquaculture Programme

From these themes, we identified the following projects:

*Please note: Project start dates are subject to the approval of full business cases by the Scottish and UK Governments.  They are also dependent on securing any match funding necessary to meet funding gaps.

Next steps

The council, UK and Scottish Governments agreed the ‘Heads of Terms’ on 11 February 2021. This sets out the general areas for investment.

You can read the Head of Terms Agreement here

These include aquaculture, innovation, tourism, housing, digital connectivity and skills for a rural economy.

The next stage is for the council and its rural growth deal partners to develop business cases that will set out the detail of projects for delivery. This is expected to take 1-2 years to complete and it is only following approval of these business cases by both Governments that rural growth deal funding becomes available for use.

The rural growth deal programme is expected to be delivered over a 10 – 15 year period.

Find out more

Read some of the comments from the consultation: Public backing for a
rural growth deal for Argyll

Read our Rural Growth Deal proposals: Areas for investment

Answers to some questions you may have: Questions and answers