10-year investment plan for a Fairer Fife given the green light

Strategy sets out ways to prioritise £850 million investment into buildings and assets in kingdom

A 10-year investment plan to help create a Fairer Fife has been agreed.

Fife Council’s policy and co-ordination committee has approved a new capital strategy which sets out ways in which the council will prioritise an £850 million investment in buildings and assets over the next decade to support the ambitions continued in the Plan for Fife.

Capital investment can include expenditure on schools, infrastructure and housing.

The strategy reflects the need to balance investment in maintaining and enhancing Fife’s existing infrastructure with spending on new assets.

Co-leader, Labour councillor David Ross, said: “We are ambitious for the future and want to improve the lives of everyone in Fife.

“But this won’t be easy at a time of significant challenge in terms of reducing resources, increasing demand, a growing and ageing population and economic uncertainty.

“We will have to carefully target our investment in assets to help drive strategic change and enable more community involvement in local services and improvement.

“The Plan for Fife highlights the need to commit resources in our most deprived communities to make Fife a fair place.

“This requires strategic change to the way we work, a critical part of which is how we invest capital and other assets.”

Co-leader, SNP councillor David Alexander, said: “Our plan is to keep providing services that are not just fit for purpose, but which meet the evolving needs and aspirations of Fifers.

“And that will require significant investment in facilities and technology.

“We want to achieve major improvements, but of course we also have to use a large part of our capital investment to maintain and enhance existing infrastructure and buildings, like roads and schools.

“It’s important we make the best use of investment opportunities that come from a range of sources, particularly the City Region Deals that Fife is part of.

“We know it will be challenging to achieve our ambitions, but believe it is possible if we work in partnership and co-ordinate activities with all the other agencies working in Fife.

“This is why it was essential to align our capital strategy with the Plan for Fife.”

We are ambitious for the future and want to improve the lives of everyone in Fife