The Scottish Government has published a draft 10-year infrastructure strategy and pipeline, outlining its intention to harness new models to leverage private finance.<\/p>\n
A consultation document covering infrastructure planning, investment and delivery between 2027 and 2037 was announced alongside yesterday\u2019s Scottish Budget for 2026\/27.<\/p>\n
The strategy, aimed at three key outcomes \u2013 the environment, economic growth and building sustainable places \u2013 is structured around three \u201cenablers\u201d \u2013 public assets, place-making and private investment.<\/p>\n
On the latter, the strategy said: \u201cThe Scottish Government is also actively exploring a range of models to crowd-in private investment \u2013 including government guarantees, equity stakes, and other mechanisms \u2013 in a way that safeguards value for money and protects the public purse from undue risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Scottish Government will explore models including best practice from abroad, the document added.<\/p>\n
In addition, government or public sector guarantees could be used to reduce risk for investors around large-scale infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuarantees can lower borrowing costs and banks often offer lower interest rates, making the project more viable. Guarantees also reassure investors that government is committed to a project,\u201d the document said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are also seeking more co-investment from public and private pension funds into projects and businesses in Scotland, by working with the Scottish Local Government Pension Scheme and others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, the strategy said that pressures on public finances meant that public bodies should consider where a consolidation of their estate was \u201cpossible and desirable\u201d.<\/p>\n
It said: \u201cThere are a number of public assets that cannot be fully maintained with the current funding available and asset strategies are required to help set out a comprehensive position and potential approach to manage the challenges we are facing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the accompanying infrastructure delivery pipeline covering the next four years sets out specific investments worth a total \u00a311.1bn, plus additional plans for revenue-financed infrastructure programmes.<\/p>\n
Pipeline highlights include \u00a34.1bn of public investment in housing, matched by \u00a3800m of private investment, investment across the NHS estate, \u00a31.2bn for rail and ferries, \u00a3700m in prisons and \u00a3300m in nature infrastructure.<\/p>\n
One project \u2013 the continuation of dualling work on the A9 between Inverness and Perth \u2013 was allocated almost \u00a3200m in the Scottish Budget.<\/p>\n
A new wave of community health centres costing \u00a3500m will be funded via the Mutual Investment Model, with 12 schemes included in the first tranche.<\/p>\n
The Scottish approach mirrors similar moves by the UK Government, which last year launched its own 10-year infrastructure strategy<\/a> and pipeline, along with proposals for a new public-private partnership model to fund community health centres<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Scottish Government has published a draft 10-year infrastructure strategy and pipeline, outlining its intention to harness new models to leverage private finance. A consultation document covering infrastructure planning, investment and delivery between 2027 and 2037 was announced alongside yesterday\u2019s Scottish Budget for 2026\/27. The strategy, aimed at three key outcomes \u2013 the environment, economic …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129711,"featured_media":473332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[549,565],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-536019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-civils","category-government"],"yoast_head":"\n