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I am pleased to see the first minister and head of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) joining forces to call on Scotland’s 32 local authorities to identify more shovel-ready projects for capital investment.

As our campaign in the lead-up to this year’s local elections highlighted, capital investment is one of the most efficient ways of generating added value from
public spending at a local council level.

On average, every £100 of local authority funding invested in capital projects has delivered more than £300 in added value to local economies throughout Scotland.

At a construction summit held by the Scottish Government in July, we raised concerns that not enough was being done to speed up getting shovels into the ground on local government-funded building projects. Since then we have been able to discuss these concerns with Alex Neil and his recent successor as infrastructure and investment secretary Nicola Sturgeon.

I’m confident Ms Sturgeon is giving our concerns her full attention. Central and local government need to focus on getting funded projects moving as quickly as possible through procurement

It’s only when the work starts on the ground that we’ll see this investment yielding benefits by directly supporting jobs and apprentices in the building industry.

Michael Levack, chief executive, Scottish ºÚ¶´ÉçÇø Federation