Changing Dundee

Current Context

The latest figures for Dundee show that 5,287 (22.5%) children are living in poverty (household income after housing costs – Department for Work and Pensions data). This has fallen from 27% in 2017, with the largest reduction being in 2020/21 which was 4% down
on the previous year. This was mainly attributed to the £20 Universal Credit uplift that was subsequently removed.

The new data shows just how important additional investment in the new Scottish Child Payment will be to supporting families through the cost of living crisis and to driving forward  efforts to meet Scotland’s child poverty targets. The payment of £10 per week was introduced from February 2021 for children under six where families are in receipt of universal credit. This was doubled to £20 per week in April 2022 and will increase to £25 per week when rolled out to all eligible under-16s by the end of the year.

Every Council and local health board in Scotland is required to publish an annual Local Child Poverty Action Report setting out action being taken at local level to tackle child poverty. This action also needs to counter the effects of the cost of living crisis. Partners will also work with the Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland to target reducing child poverty through innovative welfare benefit reforms and maximisation of take up.

The Scottish Government’s Scottish House Condition Survey estimated that in Dundee City, in the period 2017/19, 31% of all households were fuel poor. This was greater than the Scottish estimate which was 24%. Dundee City had the joint fourth highest percentage of households in fuel poverty when compared to the other local authorities in Scotland.

The Partnership will contribute to ensuring that Dundee is a living wage city. The number of people earning less than the living wage reduced from 20.5% in 2016/17 to 12% by 2021. The city has passed the milestone of 100 organisations accredited as living wage employers.

The rise in drug deaths highlighted in Dundee in recent years has brought to the fore the need for support for people who are experiencing problems with drug or alcohol use. The Drugs Commission established in Dundee to provide recommendations reported back in March 2022 and specific areas identified for further improvement included responding to pressures and capacity issues within treatment services, accelerating progress with whole system change, improving treatment options, eliminating stigma, enhancing the focus on prevention and improving communication with the workforce and other stakeholders.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on our citizens’ mental health and wellbeing due to reduced access to services and support, social isolation and loneliness, financial / job insecurity and effects on life circumstances, the day to day challenges of being in lockdown, and uncertainty and concerns about the ongoing nature of the pandemic. An inequalities analysis evidenced differential effects on particular groups of people, in particular the long-term sick and disabled, specific age groups, carers, those unemployed and/or on welfare benefits, and those that lived alone. This included significant and profound inequalities in mental health and wellbeing.

The pandemic and lockdowns also had a significant impact on people at risk of abuse, violence or exploitation. Our Protecting People in Dundee arrangements continue to bring together a range of partner agencies to protect people of all ages in the city from harm.
There are strong links between poverty, mental health and obesity, so early intervention work with children across the city continues linked to physical activity and healthy cooking initiatives.

Care services were severely strained during the pandemic and came through it thanks to the resilience of staff and support from community-based organisations and volunteers. Workforce planning and building community-based organisations will continue to be vital to address challenges in recruitment and retention following Brexit, at the same time as unprecedented demand for community care is showing in rising levels of unmet need. Better community care will depend as much on the strength of community support networks as it  will on the services.

Throughout the next four years the establishment of a new National Care Service will see significant structural change in care and council services in Dundee.

Current Context

A strong city economy creates enough jobs to sustain its population’s income and local service needs and wants. A sustainable economy can do this for the long term by design by continually renewing itself and preventing depletion of its natural, social and financial resources. Our Community Wealth Building approach will help deliver inclusive growth by maximising local supply chain and sub-contracts, maximising learning and employability on major capital projects, and helping the third sector take control of community assets.

Dundee is well positioned for the future with two globally renowned universities in the city and St Andrews just across the bay, plus the Innovation Hub at Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc, the Drug Discovery Unit and other life sciences and biomedical innovation  activity at the University of Dundee, the Cyber Quarter at Abertay University, a thriving port, and thousands of jobs in video games, digital technology and life sciences. The £300m Tay Cities Deal is boosting the infrastructure needed to sustain growth and ensure it is  inclusive growth that provides jobs for local people. The Tay Cities Deal board will continue to deliver new projects to create inclusive economic growth. The creation of a Life Sciences Innovation District in the heart of the city will build on this infrastructure and support  the retention/attraction of global companies, offering further economic growth and employment opportunities.

The city received a massive boost from the arrival of V&A Dundee and can now look forward to the development of the Eden Project. However, the slower pace of recovery and cost of living may impact on tourism and other consumer driven sectors. The vision for the Eden Project Scotland goes beyond that of a tourist destination, and will feature guilds and embassies across the city which will provide educational opportunities and support the aspirations of local communities.

The Waterfront continues to make exciting progress, with more award nominations for the superb Waterfront Place and all bar one of our new commercial units now fully let. The original promise of a major jobs boost is well underway, with over 1,300 of the original 3,000 jobs target for the Waterfront now met. Job numbers across the city are growing, with projects that the Council and Scottish Enterprise have supported including NHS24, Social Security Scotland, BT and Embark. Making sure we have the right people with the right kills to take up opportunities in the future will need schools, further and higher education, employability partners and employers to plan together.

The claimant count for people applying for benefit while looking for work by June 2022 is below the pre COVID level and the percentage of the Dundee population in work is at its highest level, having risen from 61% in 2013 to 71% in 2022. However, there are approximately 11,000 economically inactive people of working age, including the unemployed and people with mental health and other disabilities. The priority for the Council in the next few years is to assist the whole of this cohort. This is consistent with the new employability strategy which focuses on transforming the way we deliver services to use current funding more efficiently to help support the harder to reach groups find rewarding employment.

Given the city’s commitment to children and young people and to reducing poverty, we will target the percentage of 16-19 year olds from Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 1 (the 20% most deprived areas) to ensure they all get into positive destinations (employment, training or education). Partners will also implement Our Promise for Care Experienced Children, Young People and Care Leavers.

The City Centre is changing as digital shopping and new hybrid working patterns change how people work and shop. This has resulted in loss of footfall to city centre businesses compounding longer term challenges, leaving parts of the city requiring imaginative  redesign to meet people’s needs. The Council will provide leadership and a City Centre Investment Plan backed by leading design thinking to bring new life into the centre of the city.

Current Context

As global temperatures rise due to increased greenhouse gas emissions, the impacts from our changing climate will be experienced in Dundee, with potential for increased flooding, storms, and extreme heat in the city. Scientists have agreed that we must all take action to try to keep global warming below 1.5C.

In 2019, Dundee declared a climate emergency, recognising the serious and accelerating environmental, social and economic challenges presented by climate change. In response, a city-wide Climate Action Plan was prepared that set out a first set of ambitious actions  under the themes of Energy, Transport, Waste and Resilience to support Dundee in a just transition to a net-zero and climate resilient future by 2045 at the latest.

The pace and scale of transformational change required to meet this challenge requires collective leadership to support cross-sector collaboration in low carbon innovation, investment, behaviour change and ensuring a Just Transition by addressing inequalities such as poverty and social justice.

To do this, we need to ensure that the whole community, including the business and education communities, understand the challenge we face and the solutions we are identifying and that these solutions do not negatively impact any members of our society. In co-designing solutions, our community will benefit from access to biodiverse green spaces, improved health and well-being, clean air, affordable food and energy and protection from future climate impacts. High levels of engagement will ensure everyone is empowered to participate in developing and implementing these solutions as well as to reap these benefits.

The Dundee Climate Leadership Group provides active leadership on Dundee’s net zero challenge, levering expertise from across the city to develop the ambitious decarbonisation projects; Sustainable Dundee is a partnership of public, private and community  organisations working together to deliver the Plan and its future iterations, scaling up collaboration; and the Sustainable Dundee Network, a local legacy of COP26, has over 20 organisations coordinating and collaborating on events, projects and campaigns to maximise  the impact of public engagement opportunities.