Community Benefits from City Construction Projects

The city council’s community benefits policy is still creating employment opportunities, apprenticeships and work experience opportunities through major city construction projects, the policy & resources committee will hear.

And the meeting will be told that communities will have a chance in the future to influence how benefits are delivered in their areas.

A wide-ranging building programme delivered local spend of £7,774,895 in 2021/22, using over 74% of local labour.

This includes Caird Avenue Nursery, Derby Street Housing Development, Broughty Ferry Flood Defence Project, Dundee and Angus Residual Waste Plant and Michelin Innovation Park.

In 2021/22 the community benefits policy delivered 17 Work Experience Opportunities, and 39 Awareness Raising Activities, supporting 1,684 individuals. 

A total of four Employment and Skills Employment Opportunities were created. Five Project Initiated Modern Apprenticeships were also created, and 19 Existing Modern Apprentices were recorded. 

Councillors on the policy & resources committee will hear that Community Wealth Building, which has a core focus on growing social and environmental benefits in all economic activity, is now being taken forward as part of the policy.

The committee will hear that in the future the council would like to develop and deploy Community Wish Lists. These will allow local communities to directly influence the community benefits delivered in their areas. It is intended that staff will work with Local Community Planning Partnerships to gather and moderate requests which will be published on an online portal, which contractors with community benefits requirements within their contracts will be directed to deliver.

The annual procurement report and community benefits update also shows Dundee City Council completed 18 regulated procurements with a value of £77,168,032.

It also shows that the Council achieved 98% of all invoices being paid within 30 days, with 129,311 invoices paid in 2021/22.

Council leader Councillor John Alexander said: “Despite the varied difficulties posed first by the pandemic and now the international challenges facing the construction industry, we have still been able to create jobs and opportunities for local people.

“This also includes providing employment for people previously unemployed or made redundant.

“I am also interested to see how that communities can have a chance to influence benefits in their local areas.

“The council is working hard to make the city a better place for everyone and this report shows how we are investing in our communities for the future.”

The policy & resources committee meets on Monday April 24.

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