Team Scotland's inward investment support: evaluation

4. Analysis of management information

The Theory of Change model set out a range of resources that the programme had available, which would be used for the delivery of the support as well as monitoring the progress of projects through management information (MI) systems. Over the evaluation period, MI data shows that the Scottish Government and its delivery partners undertook a broad range of activities of support to 282 unique firms and 310 inward investment projects, with a planned total new jobs figure of 14,070. Support was provided for three inward investment types: new (support to establish a new company in Scotland), expansion (to expand the company in Scotland) and safeguarding (to prevent the company in Scotland from closing down or downsizing).

The MI review uses information gathered from validated success forms which are completed following a successful project landing in Scotland and a high degree of confidence can be placed in this data. In addition to the broader points above, this data also shows that over the period 2018/19-2020/21:

1. Inward investors contributed £4.88 for every £1 of planned public financial assistance.

2. England and the USA are the most common locations for parent companies that receive assistance for inward investment projects in Scotland.

3. Inward investment support was concentrated on projects in bigger cities: over 50% of support offered falling to companies establishing operations in Edinburgh and/or Glasgow.

4. Scotland's inward investment projects were also concentrated in urban locations, with 89% of projects being in an urban location.

5. Of Scotland's nine opportunity areas, Healthtech, Energy Transition and Software & IT received the most projects, although the largest category was "Other"^[12]. The highest number of jobs per project was found in Digital Financial Services while the highest level of assistance per job was in Transformation of Chemical Industries.

6. Most projects were expansion projects, while safeguarding projects had the highest number of jobs per project.

7. Finally, projects without an offer of financial assistance had a higher level of planned new jobs when compared to projects with an offer (7,556 vs. 6,515) yet accounted for a smaller proportion of all projects (45%). Projects with offers of financial assistance had a higher level of safeguarded jobs than projects without.

Respondents highlighted a variety of factors and support types that were most influential in deciding to invest in Scotland, and which were most helpful. These can be seen in Figure 3 below.

Graphic text below:

Top 3 factors in deciding to invest in Scotland

• Financial Support
• Skilled Workforce
• Skills Support

Most useful support activities in helping to increase/safeguard employment

• Financial support
• Project support & consultation
• Organised visit to Scotland
• Labour market information

Most useful non-financial

• support activities
• Project support & consultation
• Signposting to supply chains partners