Published: 03 Oct 2017
Commission in Scotland announces City Deals strategy with former Stirling Council Leader to put equality at the heart of investment
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has launched a programme of work in Scotland to engage with Local Authorities and their partners across the country on City Region Deals. These significant investment deals worth £2 billion represent a key opportunity to ensure that their benefits are shared equally by everyone in Scotland’s communities, particularly women, disabled people and ethnic minorities.
The Commission will deliver a targeted package of support to Local Authorities delivering City Region Deals to assist them in:
- ensuring their plans pay due regard to the equality duty and maximise opportunities to advance equality of opportunity in employment, in housing, and in urban planning
- providing expert advice on equality in procurement, harnessing the powers to set equality conditions in award criteria and contractual conditions
- developing a measurement framework, based on the Ayrshire Inclusive Growth model, which enables partnerships to capture and reflect the equality gains they have made
The work will be delivered, where possible, collectively across City Deals encouraging sharing and innovation, but also in a bespoke manner to support local initiatives and programmes of work.
This will be led by Johanna Boyd, who was the leader of Stirling Council before standing down earlier this year. Ms Boyd, who secured the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal, was the youngest Council Leader in Scotland, and one of only two women leading a Council at that time.
Johanna Boyd said:
“I am very much looking forward to getting started on this vital work. The current economic and social policies of the Scottish Government present a unique opportunity to ensure that both employment and infrastructure opportunities are equally available to all sections of our communities across Scotland. We will work in partnership with all City Region Deals to secure these shared aspirations of equality.”