Tay Cities Deal Signed - Now Deliver Jobs

At long last the Tay Cities Deal has been signed, now the focus has to be on jobs.

I welcome the signing of the Tay Cities Deal.  I have been critical in the past of the length of time that the deal has taken to get to this stage, I stand by that criticism but now is the time to deliver.

As a member of the Tay Cities Region Joint Committee I expect the focus to be on the delivery of jobs in the region from now on.  I want to see this deal working - creating jobs sooner rather than later.  The Tay Cities Deal has recognised many of the economic problems that impact on the region it must now work to solve some of those issues and create a more vibrant economy in the future.

In many respects the hard work starts here, we need to get to a point where the funds made available by the deal are being invested and jobs are being created.

The people of the Tay Cities Region should have high expectations of all those charged with delivering on this deal to now work hard to make it a success.

We also need to be clear that the Tay Cities Deal is for a specific range of projects, it will not on its own solve all the problems of the economy in our area.

We also need to recognise that the deal was developed long before anyone had heard of Covid-19.  Huge economic problems are coming our way in the wake of the pandemic and also Brexit; both governments and the local councils need to work together to protect the economy from these new threats.  The Tay Cities Deal is not designed to combat the problems caused by the pandemic.

The talk is about the economy, but the reality is that this is about creating a fairer economy and a fairer society.  This Christmas some families will struggle to feed themselves the aim of this deal and all government intervention in the economy must be the eradication of poverty.

The Tay Cities Deal will only be a success if it creates a fairer economy in the region and plays a role in the cutting poverty in the region.