The Commonwealth catalyst: the legacy behind Glasgow’s games
“Since its inception, Clyde Gateway has spearheaded the delivery of over 4,000 new homes and secured £1.5 billion of inward investment in our communities. It has created 8,300 new jobs for the area and built more than 160,000 sqm of brand new, high quality, business space”.
In just a year’s time Glasgow will welcome back the Commonwealth Games to our city, albeit a pared back version. This will, just twelve years after Scotland last hosted the Games, showcase Glasgow to the world. Importantly, it will once again show the transformational change that has been made in the communities which played host to the Games back in 2014.
The east end of Glasgow and Rutherglen were at the heart of this, being home to the Athletes’ Village and world class venues like the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome and the Emirates Arena. In the intervening years between the Games, these venues have hosted premier sporting events like the 2018 European Championships, the World Cycling Champions in 2023, and most recently the 2024 World Athletics Championships.
But what is really important is what happened for the communities around these venues. Prior to the Games in 2014, Clyde Gateway was established to revitalise the area and remove barriers to investment after decades of economic decline. Of course, a sporting legacy is important, but a long term, holistic, socio-economic regeneration programme is essential for delivering lasting change. As a result of contamination from heavy industries of the past, like chemical works and gas power stations, huge swathes of Rutherglen, Dalmarnock and Bridgeton were unable to be developed. However, extensive remediation, now totalling almost 750 acres of land, has unleashed the creation of new, award-winning greenspaces, and created quality places to live, work and play. At Cuningar Loop, a former landfill site, there is now the Riverside Woodland Park with a bike skills area and Scotland’s first outdoor bouldering park. It now even has its own parkrun every weekend.
CGI of the £500m Clyde Gateway Innovation Masterplan investment at Shawfield
Since its inception, Clyde Gateway has spearheaded the delivery of over 4,000 new homes and secured £1.5 billion of inward investment in our communities. It has created 8,300 new jobs for the area and built more than 160,000 sqm of brand new, high quality, business space. Rutherglen is now home to an international entertainment brand, TopGolf, driving economic growth and footfall, but what is most important is that almost 80% of their employees have been taken on from local communities.
That is because everything that Clyde Gateway does is rooted in local people. We support Baltic Street Adventure Playground, an incredible space in Dalmarnock that has now helped over 900 families. Or the 4,600 local people have participated in our employability programmes which tackle persistent worklessness, many of whom have gone on to work in green jobs or even set up their own businesses. There is no sign of this progress slowing down. Clyde Gateway recently announced a new £500m masterplan that will transform over 100 hectares of land into a mixed-use ecosystem of homes, hotels, business and commercial space, all powered by low carbon heat networks and green infrastructure. It will harness the power of the so-called triple helix of innovation – that is, the research expertise of the University of Strathclyde being leveraged in parallel with funding and commercialisation from the private and public sectors. This will help bolster the futures of local people, creating jobs and transforming lives.
The Commonwealth Games returning presents another springboard to deliver for people living in the east end of Glasgow and Rutherglen. Leveraging public and private sector investment, Clyde Gateway can maintain the focus on delivering regeneration focused on people, place and jobs. With the help of local communities, we can ensure Glasgow’s east end continues to shine on the world stage, not just for the Commonwealth Games, but for generations to come.
Niki Spence is Head of Sustainable Communities at Clyde Gateway
