Delivering a National Commitment to Scotland’s Towns: Unlocking sustainable development and infrastructure

This event incorporates STP's AGM, highlighting progress and future plans for the organisation, featuring Professor Leigh Sparks and Kimberley Guthrie.

Session Overview

Creating resilient, inclusive and sustainable towns requires more than ambition. It demands investment, collaboration and new approaches to unlocking vacant spaces, infrastructure and existing assets.

Across Scotland, communities, local authorities and delivery partners are finding innovative ways to bring vacant and derelict land back into use, retrofit existing buildings, improve digital and physical connectivity, and overcome the barriers that often stall regeneration projects.

This session will explore practical approaches to sustainable development that deliver economic, environmental and community benefit, showcasing projects that demonstrate how partnership working and creative delivery models can accelerate regeneration.

Programme

Scotland's Towns Partnership AGM

10:00 – 10:15am Professor Leigh Sparks, Chair, Scotland’s Towns Partnership

10.15am – 10.25am Kimberley Guthrie, Chief Officer, Scotland's Towns Partnership

10.25am AGM Close

Delivering a National Commitment to Scotland’s Towns: Unlocking sustainable development and infrastructure

10:25 – 10:30am Welcome and Setting the Context

Kimberley Guthrie, Chief Officer, Scotland's Towns Partnership

Kimberley will introduce the opportunities and challenges around sustainable development and infrastructure, and why unlocking investment, retrofitting existing assets and delivering climate resilient places is increasingly central to the future of Scotland's towns.

10:30am – 10:45am The future of infrastructure in Scotland

Lynne Ward, Senior Associate Director – Infrastructure Strategy, Scottish Futures Trust

Scotland’s towns face major changes such as climate, demographics, economic pressures, technological change, public sector reform and security. Infrastructure and development are a critical part in Scotland’s response to those changes.

Drawing on the Infrastructure Needs Assessment, Scottish Futures Trust will discuss how a long term, sustainable approach to infrastructure investment can inform the decisions we make today. Exploring the power of aligning current investment decisions with Scotland’s future needs in unlocking sustainable development to support thriving and resilient towns.

Approaches to sustainable and long term infrastructure development

Sharing case study examples demonstrating how collaboration, innovation and creative approaches can help unlock development and embrace existing buildings. Bringing together ideas around reuse, regeneration, investment and sustainability, it showcase how partnerships can deliver positive change and create lasting value for communities across Scotland.

10.45am – 11am Unlocking sustainable development

Jennifer Horn, Regeneration Manager, Inverclyde Council

This session will explore how Inverclyde is unlocking waterfront and brownfield sites for sustainable development, focusing on the long term investment, strategic approach and partnerships needed to turn challenging sites into opportunities for growth.

11am – 11.15am Circularity in the built environment

Alex Reeves, Manager Built Environment, Zero Waste Scotland,

Outlining the road to embedding circulatory in the built environment drawing on practice examples from across Scotland.

11:15am – 11:25am Discussion

Interactive discussion drawing on lessons from our case studies, with a focus on sharing ideas, exploring practical approaches and identifying actions you can take forward in your own work to support thriving, resilient and sustainable towns.

11:25am – 11:30am Closing Reflections

Kimberley Guthrie, Chief Officer, Scotland’s Towns Partnership

Privacy

To support networking and help you get the most out of our event, we will provide those coming with a list of the names and organisational affiliation of those attending.

Furthermore, we typically take photographs of proceedings in order to highlight or showcase STP’s activities.

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