Commenting on the report published yesterday by the Centre for Cities which suggested that cities like Dundee might take longer to get out of recession, Dundee’s SNP politicians were concerned to highlight the positives and to assert that joint campaigns such as the Courier’s ‘Let’s Get Dundee Working’ can help to make things happen.

Dundee East MSP Shona Robison said today, “Of course, there are many problems in Dundee and these have been well-rehearsed many times, but there are numerous positives too. “The Scottish Government has been doing a lot to help Dundee recover, with £33m invested in the waterfront as a catalyst for further regeneration of the city. Scottish Government support can be the key for the V&A Dundee project which will provide hundreds of jobs and more importantly signal a new era for the city’s recovery and will only be possible through joint working of Dundee City Council, Dundee’s two Universities and other partners. “Despite the downturn and the tight financial settlement, the Scottish Government and its agencies has committed record spending on new social housing and on a new £22m swimming and leisure centre in Dundee with 5 new primary schools and a new building for Harris Academy forthcoming – all will help to keep Dundee’s recovery on track.

“Our freezing of the Council Tax across Scotland for a third successive year has helped ordinary families while the abolishing or slashing of Business Rates – welcomed by the Federation of Small Business as ‘making a real difference’ – has been a big help to thousands of small businesses across the country and in some cases has made the difference between businesses surviving or going under.

“As local politicians we are working hard with the Scottish Government and Dundee City Council to seize the opportunity to make Dundee the renewables capital of Scotland in the same way that Aberdeen benefited from North Sea oil and gas.

“By working with Forth Ports, Scottish Enterprise and Dundee Council, we can help the city take advantage of its port and ideal location for turbine manufacturing.”

Commenting on the report, Joe FitzPatrick,MSP for Dundee West said: “There is no point in glossing over the facts that Dundee has a long way to go to catch up with other more affluent areas.

“The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s refusal to allow the Scottish Government to bring forward accelerated capital spending has directly affected Dundee’s recovery. It could have allowed us to bring forward recovery projects to help bring us out of recession and protect jobs.

“Dundee’s situation has certainly not been helped either by Mr Darling’s refusal to agree to tax breaks for the computer games industry. This was the most important thing which could have been in the UK Government’s pre-budget report to safeguard Dundee’s digital media sector and allow expansion in the city.

Dundee East MP Stewart Hosie said: “A new analysis of official statistics shows that Scotland has consistently outperformed the UK in recent decades when it comes to balancing the books on public finances. Even within the financial straightjacket of the UK, Scotland can prosper and the Scottish Government has done all within its powers to help the country through the recession.

“Alistair Darling’s decision to increase employers’ National Insurance contribution by 1% from 1st April 2011 is set to cost Scotland £104 million from 2011 to 2012. This is a tax on creating jobs and this was the wrong thing to do.

“The UK Government is making the wrong choice by cutting Scotland’s budget now before we are out of recession.”

Councillor Jim Barrie, SNP Candidate for Dundee West in the forthcoming General Election, said: “The Courier’s ‘Let’s Get Dundee Working’ campaign is helping to focus everyone’s minds on the main priority which is to ensure that when the economy recovers, Dundee is quickly able to revitalise itself.  The expansion of existing business and regeneration in the public sector will create the opportunity to allow development of new jobs. 

“I have seen at first-hand how the Scottish Government’s Small Business Bonus Scheme, which was extended this year has proved to be a huge help to small businesses, which are at the core of our economy.”

The SNP is working hard to bring jobs to Dundee and has created numerous jobs since 2007 and will continue to press for more civil service opportunities, says Dundee’s elected representatives.

Shona Robison, Dundee East MSP said: “We will continue to press Dundee’s case for civil service job opportunities. It is a fact that the Scottish Government has helped to create a considerable number of new posts in the city over the last two years, some of which are still to come on-stream.

“However, despite the Scottish Government’s ongoing job creation and support for ongoing regeneration projects, we need to recognise that we are now living in a very different economic world. The public sector is not immune to that. There is more likely to be contraction rather than expansion of the public sector.

“Some of the jobs which have come to Dundee recently include 70 posts created by £5m funding in 2008 for the Translational Medicine Centre at Dundee University.

“New life sciences jobs will be created at the Scottish Institute for Cell Signalling led by Sir Philip Cohen, set up by £10m funding in 2008.

“There will be a number of new jobs at the £16m Scottish Police Services forensic laboratory at City Court at the waterfront when that opens and the SPSA have taken a 35 year lease on the building.

“It has been estimated that the Scottish Government’s £33m investment in the waterfront regeneration project could create 3500 new permanent jobs and generate £2.6 billion into the national economy.

“The V&A project which the Scottish Government is working jointly towards with the City Council and the city’s two Universities, will begin construction in 2012 and be completed in 2014 and will generate 900 jobs and bring an estimated 130,000 visitors to Dundee every year.”

Dundee West MSP Joe FitzPatrick said: “Dundee’s Life Sciences sector also received funding from the Scottish Government’s Modern Apprenticeship Framework for Life Sciences last year, which will enable the recruitment of two apprentices for the price of every one taken on.

“The Scottish Government funded 1,000 additional police officers last year and this has meant new police posts in Tayside.

“Funding from the Scottish Government will allow Dundee City Council to build five new primary schools and a new Harris Academy building in the next few years thus providing a boost for the local construction industry.

“It should be noted that other political parties in the Scottish Parliament, and the Liberal Democrats in particular, have been demanding a reduction in the size of the public sector especially the number of quangos in Scotland.

“This really is not consistent with their call locally for more civil service jobs. They can’t have it both ways.”

Dundee East MP Stewart Hosie condemned the recent announcement by the UK Treasury confirming plans to close 130 HMRC offices with the loss of up to 1,700 jobs.

SNP Treasury spokesperson Stewart Hosie echoed concerns raised by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCSU) warned that the public and businesses would suffer, with tax advice and support “severely reduced”, and tax collection “undermined”. More than 20,000 civil service jobs have been axed since 2006.

Mr Hosie said: “This is more than just the wrong decision at the wrong time, it is just madness to slash HMRC jobs and services at a time when they are needed most.

“We are in the teeth of recession, and it is no time for the Labour Government to be adding to the dole queue.

“As well as being a bitter blow to the HMRC workforce, these cuts will hit businesses and the public just when they need accessible and well-resourced services most.”

Dundee West Westminster SNP candidate Jim Barrie said that Alistair Darling’s decision to increase employers National Insurance contribution by 1% from 1st April 2011 could cost Scotland £104 million from 2011 to 2012.

The decision by the UK Chancellor is set to cost Dundee City Council £1.7 million and NHS Tayside £2.9 million.

Councillor Barrie said: “Labour’s decision to increase national insurance is going to have a direct effect on frontline services.

“The UK Government will be penalising employers so that they will be unable to expand and take on new staff when the recession is over.”