Scottish Levelling Up Partnerships: place selection methodology
Methodology used to select places identified for a Levelling Up Partnership in Scotland.
Applies to Scotland
This note sets out the methodology used to select 4 places identified for a Levelling Up Partnership in Scotland, as announced at Autumn Statement 2023. This was developed in collaboration with Scottish Government and agreed with them to reflect the objectives and strategic context in Scotland.
These places selected are: Argyll and Bute; Dundee; Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles); and Scottish Borders.
Metrics
In need places were identified through a combination of measures used to identify need in the Levelling Up white paper (figure 1.13, page 18), and Scotland specific factors.
These metrics cover skills, pay, productivity and health, as well as two measures to capture the Scottish context; Scotland’s rural geography and the particular challenges faced by rural areas. These measures use the most recent data available at the time of the announcement, averaging over the most recent years of Scottish data to reduce volatility and ensure the outputs are robust.
| Metric | Source | Dates used | Geographic level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Above Scottish Credit and Further Qualifications (SCFQ) Level 4 (% of total population) | Scotland’s Labour Market: People, Places and Regions* | 3-year average (Jan- Dec 2019-21) | Local Authority |
| Healthy Life Expectancy | National Records of Scotland: Healthy Life Expectancy in Scotland, 2017/19-2019/21 | 3-year average** (2017/19-2019/21) | Local Authority** |
| Median Gross Weekly Pay (£) | ONS annual survey of hours and earnings | 3-year average (2020-22) | Local Authority |
| Gross Value Added (GVA) per Hour Worked | ONS Sub-regional Productivity: labour productivity indices by local authority district | 3-year average (2019-21) | Local Authority |
| Percentage change in working age population (aged 16-64) | National Records of Scotland: Population Estimates Time Series Data | % change (2011-2021) | Local Authority |
| Access to Services (% of data zones among the 20% most ‘access to services’ deprived data zones in Scotland | Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2020 | 2020 | Local Authority |
*This link includes published data for 2019 and 2020 only. Data for 2021 is held internally by Scottish Government.
**Healthy Life Expectancy data is released in 3-year intervals. Scottish data is available for 2017-2019, 2018-2020 and 2019-2021 (one year ahead of UK-wide data used in other place selection methodologies). This data is released at upper-tier local authority level for England and Wales and council area for Scotland as produced by the National Records of Scotland (NRS). This is consistent with council areas forming the single tier of local government in Scotland.
Methodology
1. Local authorities are scored according to their relative performance against each metric to generate an overall score for levelling up need. We score places from 0 to 1 for each metric using a min-max normalisation, a statistical technique which reflects an area’s performance relative to the rest of Scotland, and then sum across each of the 6 min-max normalised scores.
2. We then apply a filter to exclude places that have already received significant previous investment, excluding local authorities that already have an Investment Zone, a town benefiting from the Long-Term Plan for Towns, Green Freeports or allocations from rounds 1 or 2 of the Levelling Up Fund of at least £20 million. This is designed to ensure that the LUP locations can identify previously untapped opportunities whilst minimising risk of local market saturation.
3. The final 4 places selected for LUPs are then the 4 local authority areas with greatest Levelling Up need who have not received significant previous investment, as set out above.