29 Aug 2024

Navigating Uncertainty: Community Regeneration and Resilience in Scotland

Organised by: SURF

10.00-16.00 (TBC)

COSLA Conference Centre, Edinburgh

The 2024 SURF Annual Conference

We are in a period of flux and crisis. Systems at a national and international levels are creaking severely.  Capital spend in the Scottish budget this year has been severely truncated and the outlook for the next couple of years does not look optimistic. Some analysis of local authority finances predict further closure of public assets and their subsequent disposal. People in villages, towns and cities are all faced with extreme challenges.

Overview

What does this mean for communities in Scotland most in need of regenerative activity? What lessons can be drawn from 25 years of the SURF Awards that can direct resource to where it is most needed? If asset disposals do take place, how do we ensure widest public benefit is at the core of the decision making? If systemic change remains distant, do the answers lie at a neighbourhood level and is the community COVID response the source of answers? Growth has returned as the political buzzword, and the move to a wellbeing economy and community wealth building remains on the horizon, but is it sunrise or sunset?

These are some questions we will be answering, maybe tentatively but with hope, on August 29th

Full agenda coming soon.