Bumper Year for Regional Selective Assistance

The last 12 months have seen Scottish Enterprise offer a total of £57.8million of Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) grants for projects with planned capital expenditure of £396.7 million.

The cash injections are expected to create or safeguard 8,991 jobs across 121 companies.

The annual report, published today, highlighted that SMEs accounted for 61 per cent of the accepted RSA offers with total grant of almost £13 million.

The projects involve planned investment of £67.5 million with the aim of creating or safeguarding 1,367 jobs.

Scottish Enterprise said that the RSA funding plays has played a crucial role in the success of a record year for inward investment in Scotland.

More than half of the planned capital expenditure generated last year came from foreign-owned companies, as well as more than half the jobs expected to be created or safeguarded.

Grants were awarded across a broad range of priority sectors including, life sciences, energy, food and drink, and financial services.

These are excellent results,” said Scottish Enterprise chief executive, Lena Wilson. “We’ve extended our reach to Scottish companies especially SMEs to help them achieve their growth potential.

“We’re also attracting high value investments from foreign-owned companies in a highly-competitive global market.

“RSA is one of the most important tools we have at our disposal and this report demonstrates conclusively that our efforts are impactful.”

Deputy First Minister John Swinney, said: “These figures demonstrate the business sector’s continued – and growing - confidence in Scotland’s attractiveness as a country for investment. This confidence is built on the fact that Scotland now has the longest period of uninterrupted growth since 2001, of which we are rightfully proud.

‪“RSA supports investment in Scotland’s economy and creates jobs for our people - in fact, Scotland now has 4th lowest economic inactivity in the whole EU. In the three months between April and June 2015, 20,000 young people got jobs - 20,000 young people in work who weren’t before. We now have the highest youth employment level since 2005 and the lowest youth unemployment level and rate since 2008, with overall unemployment also down.

‪“These are encouraging signs of an improving economic landscape in Scotland, following on from recent official statistics showing the economy grew by 0.6 per cent in the first three months of this year.

‪“The Scottish Government and our agencies are entirely focused on working with business to create new jobs, and are committed to maintaining and building sustainable economic growth in Scotland to deliver the most competitive business environment anywhere in the UK.”