Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Treasury in ‘good place to deliver’ Tay Cities Deal

The River Tay as it flows through Perth city centre.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak could rubber-stamp the long-awaited Tay Cities Deal next week, says Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross.

The cities deal is expected to be worth around £700 million and will fund projects across Tayside and Fife, including the controversial Cross Tay Link Road, and create thousands of jobs.

Almost two years after the initial head of terms on the deal was signed, Mr Ross said the UK Government was now “in a good place to deliver”.

The Scottish Tory leader told us he had been in meetings with the Chancellor and Boris Johnson this week to discuss the inclusion of the Tay deal, and several other Scottish deals, in next week’s comprehensive spending review announcement.

He said: “I’ve been doing a lot of work as leader of the party with colleagues in the Scotland Office to push this forward and to try to reprofile the money that the UK Government is putting in.

Douglas Ross.

“I think it’s the investment that is going into the Tay cities growth deal, the Moray deal, the Islands deal is great, but I’d like to see that profile reduced, I’d like to see that investment going in over a shorter period.

“I think we’re in a good place now to push this on and get that reprofiling so we can see the benefits of these deals sooner rather than later.”

“I think we’re in a good place to deliver,” he added.

Criticism of deal delays

In November 2018, the Scottish and UK Governments agreed to provide £150 million each as part of the city deal, which covers the Angus, Dundee, Fife and Perth and Kinross local authority areas.

At the time it was said the project could bring in hundreds of millions of pounds in investment, potentially securing more than 6,000 jobs over the period.

In January 2019 the Scottish Government announced it would provide an additional £50 million investment, with this going on transport, infrastructure and manufacturing projects.

Tay Cities Deal: ‘Whole process has been farcical’

Infrastructure Secretary Michael Matheson told MSPs earlier this month that the Scottish Government has been ready to sign the Tay Cities Deal for a “considerable time” and hit out at delays.

Scotland Office minister Iain Stewart, responding to criticism earlier this month, said the delays had been “for a good reason” and would result in a better deal.