THE Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) has provided details of its ‘pivotal’ role in helping Scotland come through the pandemic and work towards net zero.
The infrastructure body has helped maintain construction on key building sites and launched a forecast tool to support investment and jobs in the sector.Â
The full details are published in SFT’s latest Outcomes Report, which shows the progress that organisation and its partners have made over the past year.
The online report includes over 35 case studies of SFT’s work, including: supporting the NHS with getting vaccination centres up and running by managing the community infrastructure hub programme; developing an online construction forecast tool that identifies an £8.5 billion pipeline of future infrastructure projects; and seeing the first education project start (Wallyford Learning Campus in East Lothian) through managing the Scottish Government’s new outcomes-based funding Learning Estate Investment Programme.
Peter Reekie, SFT’s chief executive, said, “Much of our work over the past 12 months has been in helping lead through the pandemic. That work included the publication of a construction sector Recovery Plan and creating the online forecast tool to provide the construction industry with greater clarity and understanding of future public sector projects to be delivered across Scotland. The tool provides many business opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises.
“We also set out guidance on maintaining vital services from operational infrastructure projects. This ranged from assisting with getting vital Covid vaccination sites up and running to looking at how public sector office workspaces will evolve in the years to come with the publication of our New Frontiers Report as well as publishing reports looking at the future infrastructure that will be needed to support electric vehicle charging and decarbonising the heating of buildings.
“It has been a year like no other and I’d like to thank everyone we work with for their extraordinary contribution in helping to continue to develop Scotland’s infrastructure despite the exceptional challenges.”
Scottish Government trade minister Ivan McKee said, “Organisations like SFT have played an important leadership role as the economy recovers from the pandemic. I want us to consider every opportunity for Scotland to manufacture as many of the construction materials we require as possible and I would encourage businesses to come forward and work with us to ramp up our own manufacturing supply chains.
“The Construction Leadership Forum is urgently exploring how we can grow home supply chains which can improve resilience, support net zero emissions ambitions and help create sustainable growth. We know that spending on construction has multiplier effects and creates additional value elsewhere in the economy. I want to see every penny of that outlay go back into the pockets of Scottish businesses as we rebuild a sustainable economic recovery from the pandemic.”
