Facts and Figures
The Trust's Strategy For Scotland
The CRT ‘Strategy for Scotland 2008-2011’ acknowledges that working in partnership with a focused and targeted approach will ensure maximum impact of our work in Scotland. The Strategy set out a number of investment priorities through which our regeneration programme would be delivered:
- Community Learning
- Supporting Communities
- Supporting people into work
- Community enterprise
The 2004 Scottish Indices of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD 2004) has enabled the Trust to identify by local authority the particular coalfield areas where there are high levels of need. Given this information the Trust has concentrated its focus and limited resources in data zones that have been categorised as being within the 20% most deprived in order to utilise resources more effectively. As a result of this policy the Coalfields Regeneration Trust in Scotland now works as closely as possible with Community Planning Partnerships in Fife, Clackmannanshire, East Ayrshire and North Lanarkshire, which ensures that its activities are aligned and supportive of Regeneration Outcome Agreements. This approach has enabled the CRT to complement the activities outlined in the Regeneration Outcome Agreements by 'adding value' in the targeted coalfield areas and at the same time still retain links with another nine coalfield Local Authorities.
The four Scottish Coalfields, spread across 13 local authority areas, are:
- Ayrshire – which includes parts of East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and the Upper Nithsdale area of Dumfries and Galloway
- Lothian – incorporating parts of East Lothian and Midlothian
- Clydesdale/Strathkelvin – which includes parts of West Lothian, South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire
- Fife/Central – incorporating parts of Fife, Clackmannanshire, Stirling and Falkirk.
As the only grant-making body specifically dedicated to delivering coalfields regeneration, and a key agency involved in community development and social inclusion, the Coalfields Regeneration Trust has invested in projects delivering access to employment, fostering enterprise, facilitating lifelong learning, and promoting community welfare and support services. Furthermore, the Trust’s offices, in Alloa and Cumnock, have provided a focal point for local regeneration projects, and clearly have the capacity to play an important role, both in fostering networks of mutual support and information sharing, and in spreading good practice.
The Coalfields Regeneration Trust was established in response to the 1998 report of the Coalfields Taskforce, which highlighted a number of factors that accounted for the severe forms of disadvantage experienced by many coalfields communities. The evaluation of the activities of CRT in Scotland (Napier University 2005) found that the weaknesses still evident are:
- High levels of unemployment, long-term unemployment and economic inactivity;
- High levels of (often industry-related) long-term illness
- Resulting high levels of income poverty and welfare dependency
- Geographical isolation from major centres of population and employment
- Weak transport and service infrastructures, reflecting the semi-rural character of many mining areas
- Low educational attainment and basic skills gaps, reflected in a lack of formal educational achievement
- Poor quality housing stock, and low demand for new investment in housing
The 'Deprivation in Scottish Coalfield Communities, 2005' – by The Coalfields Communities Campaign – confirmed that:
- Statistics show that the coal industry continues to cast a shadow over the well being of many areas long after the mines themselves have closed
- Re-building the economic and social base of these communities was never going to be quick or easy. There has
- been progress, but the figures on deprivation show that the job is far from finished
