City Centre Recovery Fund
The City Centre Recovery Task Force was set up to address the specific needs of our city centres, with Scottish Government and all Scottish cities working together in partnership through the Scottish Cities Alliance. The Task Force listened to the views from a wide range of stakeholders and identified priority outcomes to help city centres make an inclusive and sustainable recovery.
Priorities identified include:
- Short-term work to support immediate recovery needs
- Creating an appealing city centre experience to attract visitors back and increase footfall
- Building expertise and capacity within local authorities to support city centre recovery and business environment
- Strategic planning to support and strengthen city centre economies and their recovery
- Visitor campaigns to promote city centre offers
- Supporting the work of the City Centre Taskforce workstreams
Domestic Optimised Retrofit Innovation Concept (DORIC)
Following the launch of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) Demonstrator in October 2020, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced £62 million in funding to 17 local authorities for 19 projects. An initial investment to learn lessons and catalyse innovation in retrofitting. Projects will demonstrate innovative approaches to retrofitting social housing at scale, using a whole house approach. The projects will retrofit over 2,300 homes across the UK to bring them up to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) band C or higher.
The £5.2m Domestic Optimised Retrofit Innovation Concept (DORIC) project will be delivered by Aberdeen City Council in partnership with Smart Metering Systems, IRT and Robertson as a main contractor. The project will bring together a range of low-carbon generation and energy efficiency innovations that aim to demonstrate decarbonisation potential for the UK’s social housing stock, whilst also improving comfort and lowering energy costs for residents. The technologies planned for deployment include solar panels and heat pumps to remove the supply of carbon intensive fuels, installed alongside behind-the-metre battery storage systems.
FCCP
This project has allowed Aberdeen City to secure six fuel cell hydrogen cargo bikes which will be trialled by businesses and organisations across the city. It will enable the continued expansion of hydrogen technology in the city currently supported by two existing hydrogen refuelling stations.
HECTOR
The project will deliver one hydrogen waste collection vehicle to collect waste within Aberdeen City. This investment is needed to demonstrate that fuel cell garbage trucks are an effective solution to reduce emissions from road transport in cities and from garbage trucks fleets. Aberdeen will gain experience with the operation of the truck, which will enable the partnership to generate recommendations for the deployment of fuel cell garbage trucks in NWE.
List of project partners and nationalities:
1. Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Electro-mobility in European Regions (Belgium)
2. Aberdeen City Council (Scotland)
3. Gemeente Groningen GRO (Netherlands)
4. SUEZ recycling and recovery (Netherlands)
5. Wirtschaftsbetriebe Duisburg (Germany)
6. Bruxelles Propreté (Belgium)
7. Communauté de Communes Touraine Vallée de l’Indre (France)
8. AGR Abfallentsorgungs-Gesellschaft Ruhrgebiet mbH (Germany)
9. Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen (Netherlands)
HyTrEc 2
Hydrogen Transport Economy in the North Sea Region 2
With 94 percent of transport currently oil based, green transport solutions such as hydrogen will play a key role in achieving EU energy and climate change targets.
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) are key as they have a larger range than electric battery vehicles and this extended range is essential in the North Sea which has a large number of small and medium sized cities with a large suburban and rural hinterland. Currently there is market failure caused by the high cost of FCEVs particularly for large fleet operators and the need to make green hydrogen cheaper through more cost effective hydrogen production, storage and distribution.
The key aim is to create conditions so that a FCEV market can develop, and promote the NSR as a Centre for Excellence for fuel cells and range extenders. The project will reduce the cost of hydrogen vehicles and reduce CO2 emissions by:
- Improving the operational efficiency of a wide range of vehicles such as vans, large trucks and refuse collection vehicles.
- Improving the supply chain and training so that the NSR becomes a Centre of Excellence for hydrogen transport and a competitive environment is formed
- Developing innovative methods for the production, storage and distribution of green hydrogen.
- Ensuring that the NSR is the dominant region in the EU in terms of hydrogen transport. The project will complement national programmes and facilitates joint NSR approaches and common standards.
Jive
The JIVE (Joint Initiative for hydrogen Vehicles across Europe) project seeks to deploy 139 new zero emission fuel cell buses and associated refuelling infrastructure across five countries. In Aberdeen there will be 25 double-decker hydrogen buses.
The JIVE project began in January 2017 and will run for six years and is co-funded by a €32 million grant from the Clean Hydrogen Partnership (former Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking) under the European Union Horizon 2020 framework programme for research and innovation. The project consortium comprises 22 partners from seven countries.
Levelling Up Fund
The Levelling Up Fund will invest in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities. This includes a range of high value local investment priorities, including local transport schemes, urban regeneration projects and cultural assets.
Aberdeen City has been awarded £20m from fund. The project will be for the replacement of Aberdeen Market with mixed use development including retail, food and drink, leisure, sui generis and public open space including proposed pedestrian link from Union Street to the Green.
Regeneration Capital Grant Fund
Delivered in partnership with COSLA and local government, the fund supports locally developed place-based regeneration projects that involve local communities, helping to tackle inequalities and deliver inclusive growth in deprived, disadvantaged and fragile remote communities across Scotland. In 2020, Aberdeen City Council were awarded £1,408,965.
Score
SCORE is a European Union funded project with nine cities and three universities participating: Amsterdam, Aarhus, Aberdeen, Bergen, Bradford, Dordrecht, Ghent, Gothenburg, Hamburg, University of Amsterdam, Aarhus University and University of Bradford. The partners develop innovative solutions based on open data and focus on sharing insights and methodologies for developing better public services – such as better management of sustainable mobility, improving air quality, monitoring flooding and furthering crowd management.
The main task for Aberdeen was to create open access to key watercourse and rainfall data across several sites in the city. Data is then presented to the public in the form of an App or web-based display. This flooding data is also available as a dataset on the Aberdeen Open Data Portal for re-use by citizens, academics and SMEs. The data can also be used by Aberdeen City Council staff to undertake informed and proactive decisions about flood management. An additional Citizen science app is being developed by University of Bradford with citizens to report flooding issues. This will allow citizens in localities to inform their community of the flooding issue.
Smart Hy-Aware
Smart Hy-Aware is a transnational cooperation project aiming to promote hydrogen-electric mobility by tackling infrastructure and market uptake challenges surrounding this technology. A consortium was established by the Government of Aragon with Partners: Lazio Region, Province of South Holland, Municipality of Delphi, Transport Malta, Aberdeen City Council, Hydrogen Fuel Cells and Electro-Mobility in European Regions and Pannon Business Network Association and an application made to Interreg Europe for 85% funding.
Local Authority Covid Economy Recovery Fund
In February 2022 the Scottish Government made £80m of funding available across Scotland through the Local Authority Covid Economic Recovery Fund, of which, Aberdeen City Council was awarded £2.85 million. The fund is for Local Authorities to allocate which allows ACC to consider the needs of local businesses, communities, and households and to target support to maximise economic recovery in the local area.
Projects that have been funded through Local Authority Covid Economy Recovery fund in Aberdeen include:
- Aberdeen Foyer: Cash First – direct support of hardship providing essentials to people in financial crisis.
- ACC: Creative Incubator Feasibility Study – Provide long term creative business support to boost economic activity in the sector
- ACC: Hardship Support – Direct support of hardship. Provisions of food/fuel vouchers, free school meals, emergency food and clothing distributed amongst established organisations.
- Aberdeen Inspired: Aberdeen Gift Card/ Scotland Loves Local – This project will support low-income households by circulating pre-paid gift cards to be spent at local businesses
- ABERnecessities: Brighter Future – Provide ‘new start’ packs for families fleeing domestic abuse.
Place Based Investment Programme
The 2020-21 Programme for Government announced the creation of a Place Based Investment Programme Fund with £275million of capital funding to support community led regeneration, town centre revitalisation, community wealth building and 20-minute neighbourhoods.
It is a multi-annual capital fund from the Scottish Government, £975,000 was allocated to Aberdeen City Council in 21/22 and £847,000 allocated in 22/23. Projects supported included:
- Union Terrace Gardens: Play Park Proposal – Part of a multi-million-pound regeneration project of the area, to increase footfall in the city centre.
- Belmont Filmhouse: Accessibility Programme of Works – To remove physical barriers to access for audiences and participants.
- Aberdeen Arts Centre: Children’s Theatre project - To install accessible toilets and ramp.
- Aberdeen Performing Arts: Repair, Rebuild, Revitalise project - To install LED lighting, purchase new equipment, extend the stage and install window facing digital screens.
- Aberdeen Inspired: City Centre Parklets Phase 2 project - To extend the highly successful ‘Parklets’ concept to Justice Mill Lane.
- Woodside Gateway: Street Design project - A new mini-park that creates a warm welcome to the neighbourhood through sculpture, planting and the reinstatement of the fountain.
- Greyhope Bay: Greyhope Bay Centre project - A dolphin viewing centre, community/ education space and café at Torry Battery.
- Donside Village: Tillydrone Gateway Feature - To install a contemporary piece of art on the south side of the Diamond Bridge.
Calls are currently open for this fund, please follow the link above for further information.
UK Shared Prosperity Fund
UK Shared Prosperity Communities and Place Fund (UKSPF) is a central pillar of the UK governments ambitious levelling up agenda and a significant component of its support for place across the UK. It will provide £2.6 billion of new funding for local investment by March 2025.
Aberdeen City Council has provisionally been allocated £7.1m of UKSPF by the UK Government over the next two and a half years (2022/2023, 2023/2024, 2024/2025).
Calls are currently open for this fund, please follow link above for further information.
Just Transition Fund
In 2021 the shared policy programme in the Bute House Agreement committed to establish a 10-year £500 million Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray. The Fund was announced in recognition of the particular need to diversify the regional economy away from carbon-intensive industries and to capitalise on the opportunities, including jobs and prosperity, that the transition to net zero will bring.
Aberdeen City Council has been successful in submitting bids this financial year and will continue to bid throughout the programme with transformational energy and skills based local and regional projects.