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Budget 2021: Is your area getting 'levelling up' cash?

Getty Images InverieGetty Images
The Highlands community of Inverie is to get funding to help purchase Britain's remotest mainland pub

The UK government has announced more than £172m in investment in Scottish projects as part of the Budget.

Improvement plans for the B714 road in North Ayrshire are set to receive £23m and a plan to create a "market venue" in Aberdeen city centre £20m.

A redevelopment of Inverness Castle as a tourist attraction is to get £19m.

Smaller projects including a community buyout of Britain's remotest mainland pub, The Old Forge in Knoydart, are also to receive funds.

Opposition parties have criticised the Conservative government's overall Budget, with the SNP saying it will leave Scotland "short-changed" and millions of families "worse off".

First Endeavour Aberdeen Market plansFirst Endeavour
A concept image of Aberdeen's planned new "destination market venue"

Scottish projects are to receive investment from a number of different funds.

From the Levelling Up Fund:

  • £20m for Aberdeen City Centre Master Plan to buy two vacant interlinked buildings to create a "destination market venue". Covered public space, pop-up retail space, food and drink outlets have been proposed.
  • £16.4m to restore and open to the public Edinburgh's B-listed Granton Gas Holder. The former gas works structure is part of plans to regenerate Granton Waterfront.
  • £20m for improvements to Falkirk's Westfield Roundabout. The work includes new roads and improved pedestrian/cycling crossing.
  • £23.6m for the B714, with the aim of improving road connectivity between North Ayrshire and other parts of Scotland via Glasgow. The project hopes to encourage businesses to invest in the area.
  • £19.9m to redevelop Artizan Shopping Centre in Dumbarton into a state-of-the-art library and museum. The funds will also be used to make active travel improvements between Dumbarton Central Station and the town centre.
  • £38.7m to enhance travel links between Renfrewshire's Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland and Paisley. Better pedestrian, cycling, public transport and road connections are planned.
  • £13m to restore Pollok Stable and Sawmill. The historic Glasgow site is to have hydro-power, a community centre with educational activities and space for the local community and schools to use.
  • £19.8m towards the redevelopment of Inverness Castle - a former court building - and also the development of new event infrastructure at Inverness' Northern Meeting Park and revamp of the city's Bught Park Stadium Complex.
Getty Images Inverness CastleGetty Images
A project to redevelop Inverness Castle is to get a share of almost £20m

The UK government says from its Community Ownership Fund:

  • £300,000 for the revamp of The Whithorn, a B-listed Georgian town hall in Dumfries and Galloway. The Whitehorn Trust is turning it into a multiple-use museum and arts venue and as a base for a new social enterprise offering young people training in traditional stonemasonry and joinery skills to restore the building.
  • £175,000 for New Galloway Town Hall: SOS Save Our Space, also in Dumfries and Galloway. The building is to be "renewed" into an accessible, functional, low-emission space for community use.
  • £219,096 to the Old Forge Community Benefit Society in Knoydart in the Highlands to help with the community purchase of The Old Forge pub in Inverie.
  • £250,000 for Rannoch Community Trust in Perth and Kinross to help set up a pub and community centre in the Old School. The stone building is more than 100 years old.
  • £124,843 for Callander Community Development Trust's work to reopen the visitor information centre in Callander near Stirling. The project involves purchasing a derelict RBS Bank, re-establishing the information centre.