Courier Country is being snubbed for inward investment jobs, according to a controversial new study.
The findings of employment expert Denis Taylor are sensational as he is a former director of the Scottish Government agency tasked with bringing inward investment to Scotland.
From his Dundee base, he has analysed statistics provided by Scottish Enterprise on jobs created by foreign spending north of the Border between 2013 and 2015.
He has compiled them into a league table and has found that Courier Country the council areas of Dundee, Angus, Fife and Perth and Kinross Council does not fare well.
They are all below the national average for jobs created, in the case of the last two well below. Perth and Kinross had no inward investment jobs at all.
At the top is Inverclyde, Glasgow and Renfrewshire, where the number of inward investment-funded jobs is way ahead of the national average.
The figures paint a picture of the area of Scotland’s biggest city receiving preferential treatment at the expense of others.
They show that in the last two years 9,443 new posts were created across Scotland through inward investment and of these 3,363 well over a third were in Glasgow.
Across Dundee, Angus, Fife and Perth and Kinross, only 552 jobs were created, and all but 147 were in Fife. Dundee had 112, Angus 35, Perth and Kinross none and Fife 405.
Glasgow created 5.63 jobs per 1,000 of population, over three times the Scottish average of 1.8 new jobs per 1,000 of population. Glasgow received 35% of the jobs created with 11% of the Scottish population.
Only 0.72 jobs /1,000 pop were created in Courier Country, well under half the national average of 1.8.
Fife was 13th out of Scotland’s 32 council areas at 1.11 jobs/1,000 population; Dundee 15th at 0.78/1,000, Angus 22nd at 0.32/1,000 and Perth and Kinross 32nd with no inward investment jobs whatsoever.
Glasgow led the way in inward investment projects with 32, Fife had 12, Dundee 9 and Perth and Kinross 2 out of 175 for Scotland as a whole.
Mr Taylor, a past senior director with Scottish Enterprise who has also held senior positions with NCR, AT&T and Dell and who has lived and worked extensively in the United States and western Europe, said his research raised several important issues.
“It is not surprising that the most populous local authority created the most jobs, but when the data is prorated to account for population you find that Glasgow city is performing at over three times the national average.”
He asked: “Why is Glasgow performing so well? While Dundee is often compared to Glasgow in terms of its employment needs, why is more not being done to improve its attractiveness to investors?
“Despite all of Dundee’s reputed technology and educational assets why is it not performing better?”
Mr Taylor continued: “If the Courier Country areas were to improve simply to the national average of 1.8 jobs per 1,000 population, that would translate to over 800 additional new jobs for the whole region. Dundee alone would have seen 700 more.”Record defendedScottish Enterprise defended their record for Tayside and Fife and said the £1 billion Dundee waterfront development would pave the way for even more investment.
A spokesperson said: “Last year was a record year for inward investment across Scotland.In Fife and Tayside we generated more than £134.9 million of inward investment which created or safeguarded 1,677 jobs.
“This shows the area’s increasing competitiveness as an ideal location in which to invest and grow a business, with particular strengths in life sciences and creative industries.
“The current £1 billion waterfront redevelopment project paves the way for the new V&A museum in Dundee and will further strengthen the area’s attractiveness as an investment location.”
Denis Taylor said the inclusion of safeguarded jobs was misleading as these were jobs that already existed. He had analysed data only on jobs that had been created.
The employment expert added: “The concern is not that Glasgow and thecentral belt are doing so well, it’s why isn’t the rest of Scotland doing better?
“Is Scottish Enterprise and its international arm, SDI and located in Glasgow, creating an unintentional bias that results in favouring Glasgow and central belt regions?”
He concluded: “Dundee, likeGlasgow, qualifies for Regional Selective Assistance government support tobusiness, so why is Glasgow able to attract jobs at eight times the rate of Dundee?”Cities can learn from DundeeWhen I was younger, Aberdonians always looked at Dundee and somehow thought less of the city just an hour down the road, writes Aberdeen North MP Kirsty Blackman.
There wasn’t much to attract people.It was tired and their local economy seemed to be based on low value industries, encouraging lower paid jobs and not making the city an attractive place.
The Dundee of today could notbe more different to the one I remember.
The Scottish Affairs Committee visited the city to hear about their amazing waterfront project and what they’re doing to encourage positive investment in their city,particularly in the creative andgaming industries.
The city council in Dundee seems to have a can-do attitude.
The development, particularly at the waterfront, is not driven wholly by profitability.
They have basically flattened much of what was there before and have spoken to developers about taking on some of the opportunity sites.
The real difference, to me, is the attitude from the local authority on approaching each of these spaces.
The specification is laid down by the council and developers have to fall into line with what the city want.
People in Dundee support thewaterfront project. They’re on board.
They have taken ownership of the plans. School children throughout all of Dundee’s schools have been involved in promoting anddesigning the plans.
It could not be a bigger contrast to what has happened in Aberdeen in city planning in the past couple of decades.
There have been various attempts here to get the public on board with large city centre regenerationprojects, but nothing has galvanised the public in the way that the Dundee waterfront project has gained support.
In the meantime, ad hoc developments have taken place, drawing the public away from our main streets and green spaces.
In Dundee, they have a coherent, comprehensive vision that is widely backed.
The city is not feart to be hard headed in supporting these plans, standing up to developers andensuring at every stage it is theirvision that is front and centre, not the vision of those who put short-term profitability first.
What is clear to me is that what we are doing currently in Aberdeen is not working.
Our city could learn quite a few lessons from Dundee.I couldn’t have imagined thinking that 15 years ago.