The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Davidson: Tay city deal money is on the table
Scottish Tory leader visits Angus and says Whitehall will spend in region if plans come forward
UK Government money is on the table for a multi-million-pound city deal and it’s up to local councils to bring the cash to Tayside, Ruth Davidson has claimed.
The Scottish Conservative leader said influential Whitehall departments have identified funding which could be used to further boost the region’s regeneration.
But it will need Angus, Dundee, Fife and Perth and Kinross councils to put a proposal on the table and secure the investment.
Speaking during a campaign visit to Arbroath, Ms Davidson said: “What’s really important about city deals is, while the money is put up by the UK Government and in some cases Scottish Government, the ideas have to come from the local community.
“This is not a top down imposition of social reform, this is councils which have to get together and decide for their area what will make the biggest difference.
“My worry is, when you’ve got things like George Osborne saying they’re now quite far along with the Edinburgh city region deal, Dundee gets left behind.
“I would urge all of the local authorities in this area to get their heads together about what are the real transformative projects that we could do here that would make a huge difference.”
She praised work going on to transform Dundee’s Waterfront but warned against authorities letting “the grass grow under their feet”.
“There are a lot of parts of the country both north and south of the border queueing up to get this kind of investment,” she added.
“So get round the table, sort out what it is you want because I know from speaking to colleagues in the Treasury and the Scotland Office there is a will to get this done.
“The money is there but the ideas and the business plan has to come forward first. It has to be locally led.”
Ms Davidson also insisted her party’s plan for a graduate charge would raise £100 million a year after the figure was called into question.
The Scottish Conservative leader defended proposals for graduates to pay back £6,000 when they earn more than £20,000 after newspaper claims the policy could raise as little as £215,000 by the end of the parliament.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the policy was “less about funding universities and colleges and more about the Tories’ ideological obsession with introducing fees”.
But Ms Davidson insisted the policy was costed using analysis from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre and was then backed up by Lucy Hunter Blackburn, the former senior Scottish Government education civil servant.
“I understand what happens in elections, our opponents always want to have a go at you but I think it’s pretty cheeky from the SNP to try and scare people by pretending this is an up front charge, and then also trying to say that it won’t bring in any money till the back end,” she added.
The Scottish Tory leader claimed she “can’t find” any Labour voters on a campaign trail which has seen her drive racing cars and forklifts, play ice hockey and scale the Cairngorms.
But she was cautious as to whether or not her party would overtake Kezia Dugdale’s to become the opposition.
“We’re on course to have our best ever election, they’re on course to have their worst ever election and if we cross over that’s down to the voters,” she said.
And Ms Davidson praised her team of new Holyrood candidates, including Angus South’s Kirstene Hair.
She said: “We worked really hard to make sure that we’ve got candidates who are committed to their local area, that are known, families are known. Kirsteen is a great example of that.”