When it comes to infrastructure, the more effort spent getting spades in the ground, the greater the economic, social and environmental impact on the ground.

Building public infrastructure such as roads, schools, homes, and hospitals as well as installing super-fast broadband and ensuring it’s in the right place, is the bedrock on which vibrant and successful economies are built.

In Scotland and for the past ten years we, the Scottish Futures Trust, have managed and delivered a wide range of public sector infrastructure programmes. Not only does our work support economic growth, but it contributes towards a low carbon economy and delivers buildings into the heart of communities for maximum impact.

Savings

Our infrastructure programmes create many positive impacts, not least of which are the savings we generate. After we were founded and became fully operational in 2009, Scottish Government set us a challenge of achieving £100m - £150m of savings each year across our infrastructure programmes. And we have - each year. And our last financial year (2017/18) is no exception, with savings of £139m secured.

That takes the total amount we have saved to £1.2bn.

Economy

As a government owned infrastructure company, our contribution to Scotland’s public sector landscape and economy is wide and varied.

When our infrastructure projects are under construction they support thousands of jobs and create many additional training and apprenticeship positions. Then when operational, they make an even greater impact on the economy as towns and cities become greener and more attractive to live and work in; trade is made easier through improved transport links, and businesses thrive and expand into new areas where they have access to fast and reliable digital communications.

Environment

Our work makes a positive impact on the environment and our focus is to support Scotland's transition to a low carbon economy and help it reach its climate change targets. Not only do our energy efficiency programmes generate cost and carbon savings, they also support local economic development and improve the quality of public buildings.