{"id":1178728,"date":"2026-08-31T09:02:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T09:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1178728\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T09:02:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T09:02:19","slug":"edinburgh-and-glasgow-chambers-demand-funding-parity-from-prime-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1178728\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh and Glasgow chambers demand funding parity from Prime Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Edinburgh business leader has joined forces with her Glasgow counterpart to warn the Prime Minister that Scotland faces a \u00a37bn annual shortfall without equal funding powers to English cities.<\/p>\n

Liz McAreavey, chief executive of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce<\/a>, and Stuart Patrick CBE of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce have written to Number 10 demanding a meaningful devolution settlement.<\/p>\n

The joint letter requests that the capital and Scotland\u2019s largest city receive the same multi-annual funding mechanisms currently offered to English combined authorities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The two city regions collectively account for 3.5 million residents and produce around \u00a3100bn in economic output.<\/p>\n

Liz McAreavey said: \u201cEdinburgh and South East Scotland has the ambition, partnerships and proven capability to take on greater responsibility. <\/p>\n

\"AnEdinburgh Chamber of Commerce CEO Liz McAreavey.<\/p>\n

\"AnGlasgow Chamber of Commerce CEO Stuart Patrick.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts strong record of delivery through the City Region Deal<\/a> provides a firm foundation, but growing pressures on housing, transport and skills demand a more coordinated, long-term response.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause income tax is partly devolved, growth in the Central Belt raises revenue for both the Scottish and the UK budgets. This is one of the few areas where both governments gain from the same decision, which is why it should be taken together.<\/p>\n

\u201cBusiness is not asking government to carry this alone. Both Chambers are bringing business and investor interests together around investable projects, so that what our regions put to government is a value proposition and not a list of demands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stuart Patrick CBE added: \u201cCentre for Cities puts Glasgow City Region\u2019s<\/a> underperformance at around \u00a37bn a year. That is more than \u00a319m of output lost every day, about \u00a33,700 for every resident. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the largest economic gap in Scotland, and closing it would make Scotland\u2019s economy around 4.6% larger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a failure of ambition or of delivery. Glasgow City Region manages a growth portfolio worth more than \u00a32bn, larger than most English city regions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Scottish Government has committed to legislation giving regional partnerships legal status and powers over skills, economic development and planning, and we want that legislation to succeed. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat only the UK Government can provide is the long-term funding certainty that sits alongside it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plea is backed by Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli\u2019s independent report on regional economic development, which highlighted strong business support for long-term funding certainty.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Edinburgh business leader has joined forces with her Glasgow counterpart to warn the Prime Minister that Scotland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1178729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,29891,319455,4884,319456,712,16,15],"class_list":["post-1178728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edinburgh","tag-britain","tag-edinburgh","tag-edinburgh-chamber-of-commerce","tag-edinburgh-chambers","tag-great-britain","tag-liz-mcareavey","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117189318889482427","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1178728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1178729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1178728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1178728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1178728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}