An ambitious partnership of leaders aims to create a ‘creative, inclusive and entrepreneurial’ South East City Region, writes Nan Spowart

Few cities can boast a castle, Georgian elegance, a parliament, first-class bars and the world’s biggest arts festival. Yet Edinburgh has inequalities – as do the surrounding towns.

As with other cities, it has its pockets of deprivation and areas of inequality, a picture that is repeated in its surrounding towns and villages.

"For all our strengths, we are also a divided region, with significant numbers missing out on the region’s prosperity," explained Edinburgh City Council leader Andrew Burns.

According to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2012, almost a quarter of the population live in fuel poverty while 21 per cent of the region’s children live in poverty. The unemployment rate for the area, as a whole, remains around the Scottish average, but there are localities with persistent high unemployment.

"We are not achieving our full growth potential and have a critical skills shortage in areas such as software, engineering and care," said Burns. "In the next 20 years we estimate there will be an additional 200,000 people living here. We need the infrastructure and services in place to support our future economic and population growth in a sustainable and equitable way."

While Edinburgh is one of the most highly skilled cities in the UK, with 42 per cent of the population educated to degree level or above, the regional picture is more mixed. In areas such as construction, healthcare and tourism, more skilled workers are needed in the wider city region. To address these problems an ambitious plan has been drawn up to transform Edinburgh and its surrounding towns and villages.

A partnership between the capital city’s leaders and those of the surrounding regions aims to secure more than £1 billion in funding to help the new South East Scotland City Region become "the most connected, creative, inclusive and entrepreneurial place
in Europe".

It is hoped that the £1 billion can be secured from the UK and Scottish governments next year and then be matched with an additional £3.2 billion of private sector investment.

"It is ambitious but we believe it can be transformative for the region," said Burns. The bid for the funding has been made possible the councils working together. Leaders of Edinburgh and the surrounding regions of Fife, the Borders and the Lothians have formed a partnership to be eligible for City Region funding.

"We have a shared vision: we will create a region where investment, intellect and culture will fuse to create new ways of doing things," said Burns.

If the bid goes ahead it will enable the councils to invest in infrastructure, skills and innovation and draw in additional funding from the private sector.

The idea is to build on the many strengths the city region has while also tackling inequality. For example, in the Scottish Borders, Midlothian and East Lothian there is a range of internationally orientated companies involved in textiles, light engineering, electronics and medical products, as well as a strong life/bio/veterinary sciences. Fife has forged a successful reputation in renewable energy and West Lothian has developed new science and technology capabilities.

The region is also a premier area for cultural, tourism and leisure activities and has five top performing UK universities. As well as the government funding, the involvement of businesses will be crucial to the success of the new vision.

"Local authorities cannot deliver this on our own so I am urging business leaders to engage with us and support our proposition," said Burns.