Following the appointment of John Swinney as First Minister last week, details have been published of the portfolio responsibilities of the new Cabinet and Ministerial team.
The First Minister’s Scottish Government reshuffle comprises 11 Cabinet positions and 14 Ministers, which reduces the number of posts by four.
The portfolio changes of particular interest to SURF are:
Minister for Employment and Investment Tom Arthur (pictured left, speaking at the SURF Awards) has employability programmes, cities investment and strategy, City Centre Recovery Taskforce, town centre regeneration including business improvement districts, regeneration policy, the place based investment programme, community wealth building and retail policy, recovery and strategy.
Minister for Public Finance Ivan McKee has community empowerment, cross-government delivery of 20 minute neighbourhoods, planning, and the Local Governance Review (read SURF’s response to the recent consultation).
Minister for Climate Action Gillian Martin has Just Transition planning, delivery, and monitoring, including Just Transition Commission.
Minister for Housing Paul McLennan has the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, the ‘Housing to 2040’ strategy, regulation of existing housing systems, and the new deal for tenants.
Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity Jim Fairlie has allotments and community food growing, bus services and concessionary fares.
SURF looks forward to building on our existing Ministerial relationships around place-based regeneration.
The Scottish Government is SURF’s key delivery partner and supports the Alliance for Action, the People in Place Practice Network, and the SURF Awards for Best Practice in Community Regeneration.
