Friday January 16th 2026
Councillor Kelly Parry, Leader of Midlothian Council.
This View has been written by Councillor Kelly Parry, Leader of Midlothian Council
In politics, the art of branding often masks a harsher reality. The UK Government’s newly announced Local Growth Fund is a prime example. While it is being framed as a transformative boost for Scotland, those of us on the front lines of local government see it for what it truly is: a “sledgehammer” approach to local funding that threatens to dismantle the very foundations of our community support systems.
The figures are, quite frankly, staggering. As the successor to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), the Local Growth Fund represents not a step forward, but a retreat. Nationally, we are witnessing a funding plummet from £125 million this year to a mere £38 million by 2028-29. In cash terms, that is a 70% drop. When you factor in the relentless pressure of inflation, the outlook for Midlothian becomes even bleaker.
We are being told to be grateful for a fund that, within three years, will be worth only 30% of what we currently receive. This is not “growth”—it is managed decline.
Perhaps most damaging is the radical shift in how this remaining pittance must be spent. The UK Government has mandated that 70% of the money must be directed toward “capital” projects—bricks, mortar, and physical infrastructure. While investment in our physical environment is always welcome, it cannot come at the expense of “revenue” funding—the vital resource used to pay for the people who actually deliver services.
Across Scotland, 530 local authority jobs are currently supported by this funding. Beyond the council chambers, many more roles within charities and Third Sector organisations—the people who provide frontline employability training and business support—now hang in the balance. You cannot build a community on empty buildings alone. It is a fundamental error to invest in infrastructure while simultaneously sacking the very staff required to run the programs inside them.
Furthermore, the decision to bypass the Scottish Government and local councils in favour of regional partnerships is a bureaucratic step backward. By using broad population and household income data to select these regions, the UK Government has effectively disadvantaged the areas of Scotland with the highest levels of need.
In Midlothian, we know our streets, our businesses, and our unique challenges better than any regional board or a desk in Whitehall ever could. Direct, localised funding allows for agility and precision; regionalism, in this context, only breeds distance and disconnect.
Finally, is the sheer impracticality of the timeline. The UK Government expects this capital-heavy spending to be completed within a three-year window. Anyone involved in local development knows that the time required for planning permissions, procurement, and contracts makes this an extraordinarily difficult needle to thread. There is a very real risk that, due to these constraints, the money may not even be spent effectively before the fund expires.
Midlothian deserves better than a “capital-heavy” model that ignores the human element of economic growth. We are calling on the UK Government to urgently rethink the 70% capital requirement and restore funding to levels that actually protect our services and our workforce. We do not need a sledgehammer; we need the tools to build a lasting, human-centered legacy for our people.
More details and analysis are available here: Scotland’s New Local Growth Fund – An Assessment
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