GLASGOW Glasgow s ready for business Royal Exchange Square 47 46
Glasgow City Chambers The powerhouse of the Scottish economy Glasgow City Council Leader Gordon Matheson Glasgow City Council Leader Gordon Matheson Glasgow is a city which has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent years. We are the principal powerhouse of the Scottish economy; the cultural, sporting, engineering and academic heart of our country; and the city the Rough Guide called the real capital of Scotland. Glasgow s Ready for Business Guarantee In attracting and retaining investors to the city, Glasgow will guarantee a gold standard service which will consist of: We are now one of Europe s top financial centres, we have a remarkable business-tourism sector, we are the number one retail destination in the UK outside London and the physical enhancement of our city has been dramatic, whether resulting from the billionpound investment in our social housing stock, the completed M74 motorway or the regeneration along the banks of the River Clyde. School attainment in the city is at an all-time high and the number of our young people going to university has risen every year for the past ten years. We were the first local authority in Scotland to introduce a living wage and our Glasgow Guarantee is providing every young person aged 16 to 24 with guaranteed support in the form of a job, apprenticeship or training. And, of course, in 2014 Glasgow plays host to the Commonwealth Games. I am proud of our ever-growing reputation as one of the most business-friendly cities in the UK. But in Glasgow, we never stand still. So we established the industry-led Glasgow Economic Leadership to take a five to ten year view of Glasgow s economy and identify which sectors we should particularly nurture. It has identified financial and business services; life sciences; low carbon industries; engineering, design and manufacturing; higher and further education; and tourism and events as key growth sectors for the city. We will now prioritise these, in a city which has been transformed, in support of an economy which is increasingly diverse and resilient, and as part of an economic strategy which together we have developed. a single, first point of contact to eliminate duplication and confusion a rapid response to all enquiries fast-track planning professional/bespoke property searches assistance to access funding including Regional Selective Assistance funding at Tier 2 level access to Commonwealth Initiatives subsidies for graduates and apprentices dedicated aftercare. This guarantee is delivered by Glasgow City Council s Inward Investment Team who provide one point of contact to all investors interested in the City of Glasgow. The team works in partnership with Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Development International and Scottish Council for Development and Industry plus many other key agents in property, development, education, planning and recruitment. This enables them to respond swiftly and comprehensively to all investors enquiries. WORLD CLASS SCOTLAND Glasgow In short, Glasgow is ready for business. Glasgow City Council For more information on the Inward Investment Team Contact: Anne Murray Business Relationship Manager Tel: 0141 287 7218 Email: Anne.Murray@drs.glasgow.gov.uk 48 49
Image of new development under way at 110 Queen Street A City that s building a future Glasgow is embarking on some of the most imaginative infrastructure projects in the UK Glasgow is well served by two international airports, the closest being Glasgow International Airport which was named Scottish Airport of the Year at the 2012 Scottish Transport Awards. Judges praised the efforts made by the airport in increasing passenger numbers and securing new routes. A 10-year, 290 million investment in the Airport by BAA envisages up to 24 million passengers by 2030 and recent developments include a 10 million international pier extension, and the first phase of a 31 million terminal extension. The Airport serves around 90 scheduled and chartered UK and international destinations and is home to some of the world s leading airlines, including Emirates (twice daily flight to Dubai), Continental, US Airways, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Recently, Lufthansa has confirmed it will operate direct flights to Düsseldorf from April 2013. In the city centre, Glasgow City Council s Buchanan Quarter project is now on site and includes improvements to the Royal Concert Hall and Buchanan Street. Cathedral Street bridge will be strengthened and access to Queen Street railway station improved. The 80 million project is the first in the UK to be financed using the Tax Incremental Financing scheme and is expected to create almost 1500 jobs and bring in around 310 million in private investment. Due for completion in 2015, the new South Glasgow Hospitals Campus will deliver a truly gold standard of healthcare with maternity, children s, adult acute hospitals and state of the art laboratory services all together on the one campus. The 1 billion, publiclyfunded hospital site will have the largest critical care complex in the UK and one of the biggest emergency departments in Scotland. The new campus will host a major research, treatment and training facility with significant specialist clinical research activity involving the city s universities. The laboratory building, completed in 2012, has one of the largest bio-repositories in Europe dealing with nearly 100,000 enquiries a year. In anticipation of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Hotel operator De Vere Group Village Urban Resorts has confirmed a 20 million investment in Pacific Quay. This and other innovative developments will continue to deliver for Glasgow beyond 2014. WORLD CLASS SCOTLAND Glasgow 50 South Glasgow Hospitals Campus 51
City of Achievement Finance and Business Glasgow is a top 15 European financial centre and in the top 40 financial centres globally. Its first class facilities, top quality accommodation and unrivalled pool of talented people have allowed it to attract international and UK businesses and continue to move up the world rankings. The success of the International Financial Services District (IFSD) has led the sector to focus on its further growth potential and skills. Furthermore, Glasgow City Council and Scottish Enterprise intend to appoint a consultancy team to produce a Development and Economic Framework to guide and promote the regeneration of the west edge of Glasgow City Centre. This will further enhance Glasgow s offer to the financial and business services sector. For fuller information about Glasgow s IFSD and financial and business services sector, see the Clyde Waterfront section, page 43. City of Education More than 67,000 of Scotland s students attend Glasgow s five universities with another 66,000 at the city s seven further education colleges, which collectively comprise internationally recognised schools of science, law, management, medicine, engineering and business. The University of Glasgow, the fourth oldest in the English speaking world, enjoys an international reputation as a research powerhouse and is in the top 1% of universities worldwide. The University of Strathclyde, named the UK s University of the Year in the 2012 Times Higher Education Awards and a leading international technological university, has the only business school in Scotland, and only one of 55 in the world, triple accredited by AMBA, AACSB and EQUIS. Strathclyde is transforming the way academics, business, industry and the public sector collaborate. Glasgow Caledonian University is renowned for its work in the healthcare, life sciences, built and natural environment sectors, while Glasgow School of Art is one of Europe s foremost higher education institutions for creative education and research in fine art, design and architecture. Almost a third of all Turner Prize nominees since 2005 have graduated from the GSA. The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Scotland s national centre of professional vocational training in performance arts, is one of the world s top conservatoires and is the UK s only conservatoire offering music, drama and dance. A Fraser of Allander study conducted in 2011 found that students in higher education in Glasgow spend 500 million in the city each year, while the city s five universities are estimated to contribute some 1 billion to the city s economy. Engineering, Design and Manufacturing Glasgow maintains its global reputation as a centre for engineering excellence which stems from its role as one of the world s first industrial and heavy engineering centres that earned the city the title of Workshop of the World. Glasgow is home to contemporary engineering excellence across a range of global companies, including Jacobs Engineering; BAE Systems, which produces the Type 45, the world s most advanced air defence destroyer; Weir Group; Babcock, ScottishPower; SSE; Coherent Scotland; and Thales Optronics. Glasgow s colleges and universities generate a pipeline of well qualified and highly skilled engineers and industryrelevant innovation and knowledge. The University of Strathclyde is one of UK s largest engineering schools and the largest in Scotland, producing nearly 50% of Scotland s engineering undergraduates in electronics, mechanics and software. In the same year that Glasgow will attract world attention by hosting the Commonwealth Games, 2014 will see the opening of the University of Strathclyde s purpose-built Technology and Innovation Centre within Glasgow s International Technology and Renewable Energy Zone (ITREZ). The Technology and Innovation Centre will revolutionise the way researchers in academia and industry collaborate to find solutions to technology challenges in sectors that will have an impact not only to the Scottish economy, but also in a global context. The University s global reputation is demonstrated by the prestigious Fraunhofer Gesellschaft selecting the Technology and Innovation Centre as the location for its UK headquarters and for the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics. Engineering is also a key enabler in the city s ambitions as a low carbon industry hub and, just as Glasgow provided much of the engineering that helped to exploit North Sea oil and gas, it has the potential to have the same impact, and more, in the transition to a low carbon energy future. WORLD CLASS SCOTLAND Glasgow 52 University of Glasgow 53
Low Carbon Industries It is estimated that low carbon initiatives could bring 1.5 billion of new investment to Glasgow over the next decade. To capitalise on this potential, Sustainable Glasgow - a unique collaboration between Glasgow City Council and private and not-forprofit partners - is focusing on preparing the city s businesses, stimulating investment and improving the quality of life for those who work and live in the city with the aim of driving green energy initiatives and reducing the city s carbon emissions by 30% by 2020. The Technology and Innovation Centre in ITREZ will be at the centre of the renewable energy research and development activity in the city and the Technology Strategy Board s (TSB) Offshore Renewable Energy catapult, which will be located in the Scottish Enterprise Industry Engagement Building in ITREZ, will focus on technologies for offshore wind, wave and tidal power and is designed to bridge the gap between research and full commercialisation. This will see an investment of more than 62m over five years. The 12.5 million Power Networks Demonstration Centre - the first of its kind in Europe - will formally open in 2013 and will be a world-class facility that will accelerate the adoption of new, smart technologies, from advanced power grids to electric cars and household appliances. The Centre is being created by the University of Strathclyde, ScottishPower and SSE, with support from Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Funding Council. Most recently, Glasgow won 24 million of UK Government investment to demonstrate how a city of the future will work. Glasgow beat off competition from 30 other UK cities to host the TSB s Future Cities Demonstrator. The city will demonstrate how providing new integrated services across health, transport, energy and public safety can improve the local economy and increase the quality of life of citizens, and allow UK businesses to test new solutions that can be exported around the globe. The Technology and Innovation Centre will host the revolutionary City Observatory. This will allow academics and industry researchers to analyse more than 200 information feeds about Glasgow its health, economy, transport and energy use to map the relationships between them and to understand how a 21st century city operates. This will help Glasgow to create a more efficient and a more sustainable city which can adapt and move ahead of the technology of the day and make it work for everyone who lives or works in Glasgow. These are just some of the key developments that confirm Glasgow s status as a vibrant low carbon industries hub. Life Science Starting in central Scotland and spanning west to the Life Science enterprise zone in Irvine, Glasgow sits firmly in the centre of a rich and varied Life Science offer. The area hosts 36% of Scotland s Life Science companies from global organisations like GlaxoSmithKline and Life Technologies, medical technology companies like Vascutek and Ferring Controlled Therapeutics and contract research organisations like BioOutsource one of the most rapidly expanding companies in Glasgow and a leading provider of contract testing services to the biopharmaceutical industry across the world. These companies enjoy access to specialised facilities and expertise in drug discovery, bioinformatics, regenerative medicine, translational research, clinical trials and medical technology plus the opportunity to work collaboratively across the public sector and world class academic institutions. This collaboration is demonstrated in the newly proposed Stratified Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre bid being led by the University of Glasgow in partnership with industry leaders like Life Technologies. The new South Glasgow Hospitals Campus is the desired location for the innovation centre which will have the potential to position Scotland and Glasgow as a world leader in personalised medicine and as the destination of choice of global Pharma for stratified medicine studies. The area hosts a strong array of stateof-the-art facilities like BioCity Scotland, a vibrant centre for life science businesses located close to Glasgow. Launched a year ago, it has already attracted thirteen tenant companies. These include start-ups, university spinouts and well-established bioscience companies. New ventures can tap into business advice and cost-effective Photo : McAteer support whilst the bigger tenants are attracted by the excellent laboratory, equipment and office environment. Further progress will be made as BioCity Scotland continues to build links with leading research Universities, enter into discussions with corporate investors and venture funds, and attract the very best high growth company bio-entrepreneurs. Tourism and Events Glasgow s tourism sector continues to lead the city s economic resurgence. This success is built around a strategy of attracting a diverse portfolio of international conferences and major sporting and cultural events. Glasgow entered the sporting limelight five years ago when the city won the right to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014. While the global focus is now turning towards those Games in the wake of London s successful Olympics and Paralympics, Glasgow is continuing to work hard at attracting more major events beyond 2014. This process began two years ago when Glasgow became the first city in the UK to launch a formal Major Events Charter, which guarantees support for organisers considering bringing major sporting and cultural events to Glasgow. That was followed earlier this year by the unveiling of Glasgow s specific Major Sports Events Strategy, which is aimed at positioning the city as one of the world s leading destinations for sport through to 2018 - reflecting the city s bid to host the 2018 Youth Olympic Games. Those ambitions were recognised at the 2012 SportAccord Convention in Quebec, Canada, when Glasgow was named one of the world s top 10 sporting cities ahead of major destinations including Paris, Tokyo and Moscow. Glasgow also retained its position as the number one city in the world in terms of sports marketing and branding. Alongside a packed schedule of sports events is an equally vibrant calendar of cultural events. The new Scottish Hydro Arena - or The Hydro - is currently being built as part of the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) in Glasgow in partnership with AEG. With a total capacity of 12,000, this impressive venue will open in September 2013 and play host to around 140 events every year, from national and international music mega stars to global entertainment and sporting events - injecting approximately 131 million into the city s economy. Moreover, it is expected to be in the top five busiest indoor music arenas in the world, alongside iconic venues such as Madison Square Gardens in New York and London s O2 Arena. Conventions are also intrinsic to Glasgow s events strategy. Over the past seven years business tourism has been worth more than 960 million to the local economy, with the city having beaten off strong competition from the likes of San Francisco, Tokyo, Paris, Rome, Bucharest and Berlin to secure a clutch of major conferences through to 2021. Today, conference delegates account for one in five hotel beds sold in Glasgow, underscoring the importance of conventions to the city and further strengthening Glasgow s reputation both as the conference capital of Scotland and a major player within the international conventions market. The city continues to develop and attract new industry through sustained investment in commercial property, the provision of excellent transport and communication channels and ensuring easy access to both internal and external markets. Glasgow offers a diverse and attractive proposition to inward investors make it your business to visit this year. WORLD CLASS SCOTLAND Glasgow 54 SECC Hydro Arena under construction 55 Technology and Innovation Centre at the University of Strathclyde