First, last Thursday, Scotland’s public spending watchdogs delivered a critical assessment of the city region and growth deals that, since 2014, have been spreading across every acre of the Scottish landscape. Another eight are in varied stages of development. Overall, £5.2 billion has been committed by the UK and Scottish governments, local councils, universities and business interests. One deal, Borderlands, involves Scotland’s most southerly local authorities, Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders, and England’s three most northerly municipal outposts, Carlisle City, Cumbria and Northumberland. But neither Scotland’s auditor-general nor its accounts commission, while noting the funding for regional development that such deals have delivered and the collaboration that…

Source: The Times January 22, 2020 00:00 UTC