Armadale development looks at American approach

West Lothian Council Executive has approved plans to apply to use a new financial model which has been extensively used in the United States for over 50 years, to promote new development and regeneration in Armadale.

An outline business case will be submitted to the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) to establish a pilot Tax Incremental Funding (TIF) project for the Armadale Core Development Area. TIF is a finance mechanism which allows authorities to borrow against future non-domestic rates within a specific area.

If successful, the project will invest in critical infrastructure for Armadale, such as upgrading the A801 and building a new school, in one coordinated package, rather than rely on individual developers to pay for specific improvements.
 
Council Leader Peter Johnston, who chairs the Council Executive, said: "It's important that we as a council look at what we can do to help the local economy, and this project has the potential to deliver real benefits for Armadale and West Lothian.

"The TIF model has proved very successful in America and, combined with support from the SFT, will allow us to put in place the infrastructure needed to make Armadale more attractive to developers. This in turn will bring in more businesses and residents, which will pay for the infrastructure in the long-term.

"Only six areas will be chosen for the TIF pilot and a number of councils are interested, however we believe the Armadale project fits well with a number of the SFT priorities.

"We will now work on putting together a proposal for the SFT, to convince them Armadale should be among the six pilot TIF areas and if successful, we hope the model can be rolled out to boost investment in other areas of West Lothian."