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The Tay Cities region is set to receive nearly £20 million in extra funding in a new pot of money announced by the UK Government.

It’s part of the wider Local Growth Fund which shares £140 million across five Scottish regions, including £19.5 million for Tayside and £9.8 million for Forth Valley.

The Tay cash is expected to drive economic growth in Angus, Dundee, Perth & Kinross and north Fife over the nest three years.

The money is likely to focus on infrastructure investment, business support and skills development.

Announcing the new pot of cash, Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander said: “By investing in local areas, reducing child poverty and bringing down inflation, the UK Government is focused on delivering material change to people across the country – boosting living standards and improving public services.”

The new fund is in addition to the £300 million already promised to the region through the Tay Cities Deal.

Last month, projects involving innovation and regeneration were invited to apply for a share of capital funding from that pot.

The Tay Cities Deal has already contributed to developments such as Pert Museum and Dundee University’s Life Sciences Hub.

The James Hutton Institute, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, St Andrews University’s Eden Campus and Abertay University’s cyberQuarter have also benefited form the £155 million spent from the overall pot.

A number of other projects earmarked for Tay Cities Deal funding have since collapsed, including plans to build the Aviation Academy of Scotland (AAS), which would have seen 500 trainee pilots, engineers and air traffic controllers trained up.

The new Local Growth Fund is subject to full business case clearance, and further details of how the money will be delivered, including investment themes, will be set out in the coming months.

In addition to Tay Cities and Forth Valley, the other regions set to benefit from the funding are Glasgow City (£60.9 million), Edinburgh and South East (£37.8 million) and Ayrshire (£11.8 million).

The UK Government says the growth fund will provide targeted funding to boost economic growth and improve living standards by investing in the regions that contain the areas with the lowest real disposable income per capita.

This article appeared in The Courier on 8 January 2026