A SCOTTISH city has been snubbed for UK funding – with Westminster accused of “relentless disregard” for the area.
Perth has been left out of a new round of UK Government funding for towns across Scotland and the historic city never benefitted from Tory “Levelling Up” funds – with Labour withdrawing a “last gasp” award it was due to get under that scheme last year.
Now local MP Pete Wishart has blasted the UK Government for overlooking Perth in its “Plan for Neighbourhoods” scheme.
Wishart (below) said he would write to the UK Government to pull ministers up to “try to find out what exactly it has against Perth and Kinross, and if their relentless disregard for our communities will ever end”.
He said: “The Fair City, along with towns and villages across Perth and Kinross, have suffered from the economic turmoil of the last several years, a lot of which has been a direct result of woeful UK Government mismanagement, most notably Brexit, the Liz Truss mini budget, and now the employers’ National Insurance rise.
“And yet, successive UK governments have, time and time again, shunned Perth and Kinross, by failing to give funding to our local communities, despite Perth and Kinross Council drawing up numerous plans for projects that would have been transformative, and doing everything it can to get their attention.
“Since coming into power, the Labour government has taken from local pensioners, our farmers and our small businesses, but have given nothing in return. It is now crystal clear that for all their talk about growth and regeneration across the UK, Perth and Kinross is simply not a part of their considerations.”
Of 75 areas across the UK selected for new regeneration funding, worth up to £20 million each over the next decade, 10 are in Scotland. They are Arbroath, Elgin, Orkney, Peterhead, Dumfries, Irvine, Kilmarnock, Clydebank, Coatbridge and Greenock.
Three projects in Perth which were supposed to get money in the last round of “Levelling Up” money were the Lower City Mills, the former ironworks in South St John's Place, and local “micro-producers” outlet A Taste of Perth and Kinross.
Speaking at the time, council leader Grant Laing said: “Perth has once again been set aside by the UK Government which seems determined to ignore all that our city has to offer.
“After finally being awarded funds as part of the UK Levelling Up Fund, at literally the last gasp, the incoming Labour government quickly put our hopes on hold.”
A UK Government spokesperson said: “Through our £1.5 billion Plan for Neighbourhoods we are delivering on the previous government’s unfunded commitment, to give places what they have been promised and put communities at the heart of these changes.”
