Report ranks Greenock town centre as most deprived part of Scotland

Inverclyde Council claim it is because of a Scottish Government 'cuts agenda' which has seen millions of pounds wiped from the local budget in recent years leading to service reductions.

But local SNP politicians have defended the government's record - and laid the blame at the door of the Labour-led local authority administration.

It comes after Greenock town centre and east central was left with the unwanted tag of being the most impoverished part of the country, according to the latest Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) figures published yesterday.

The wide-ranging study, which comes out every four years, involves nearly 7,000 areas and takes into account seven key criteria - levels of income, employment, health, education, housing, access to services and crime.

Greenock tumbled from number 23 in 2016 to top spot in the latest findings, overtaking Ferguslie Park in Paisley which was twice named the 'most deprived' part of the country but is now in third place.

Town councillor and depute local authority leader Jim Clocherty said: "These figures are a bitter pill to swallow and show that investment can't come soon enough. "No part of Scotland wants to be labelled as the 'most deprived'.

"The simple truth is that investment in communities is investment in people and the cuts agenda in recent years has unequally affected the core funding for local government in Scotland.

"In Inverclyde, we invest in our town centres, we invest in mitigating the effect of welfare reform, we have invested heavily in our schools, in free school meals, in fighting holiday hunger and school clothing grants all geared towards supporting our communities.

"These investments though are all set against a backdrop of ongoing and continuous cuts to services.

"Just last year the Scottish Parliament's own report revealed that in Inverclyde our funding from government has been reduced by £104 for each and every person. "That is money not being made available to invest in health, jobs, town centres, schools and other services our communities rely on."

The council says that despite the cuts, it has set aside £3m specifically for the regeneration of Greenock town centre and secured £19m for a new cruise ship terminal - on top of £270m being spent on renewing or refurbishing every school across the district.

The government in Edinburgh have hit back at the claims of underfunding and insist Inverclyde has received a 'fair settlement' in addition to the millions spent locally on things like saving Ferguson's shipyard in Port Glasgow and £14m for the Diodes semiconductor plant in Greenock.

Communities secretary Aileen Campbell told the Telegraph said: "Despite further cuts to the Scottish budget from the UK Government, we have ensured our partners in local government receive a fair funding settlement - delivering a funding package of £11.2 billion for all local authorities in 2019-20, which is a real terms increase of more than £310m.

"Inverclyde Council will receive £181.3m to fund local services in 2019-20. "Using their council tax powers they will generate an additional £1.7m to total £183m - an increase of £8.2m or 4.7 per cent compared to 2018-19. "Any assumptions relating to possible future budget reductions are entirely speculative at this stage."

The area's MSP, Stuart McMillan, accused the council of 'refusing to accept any responsibility' for the damning deprivation figures - but urged all levels of government to work together.

Mr McMillan said: "This should be a wake-up call to everyone who cares for our community to bring forward their ideas and suggestions to take Greenock and Inverclyde forward."

Cllr Chris McEleny, leader of the council SNP group, says tackling deprivation is now an 'emergency'.

Mr McEleny said: "These results are grim reading. "Naturally people will ask why this level of poverty exists in Scotland with the wealth of assets we have, however, on a local level this is an absolute failure to address key issues at the root cause and the council must treat the level of deprivation in Inverclyde as an emergency."

MP Ronnie Cowan says poverty is 'not new to this area' and creating employment is key.

Mr Cowan said: "We need to regain our self-confidence and sell Inverclyde. We have not been good at that in my living memory. "The quickest route out of financial deprivation and all the ills that brings is through employment. Bringing jobs to Inverclyde should be a number one priority for the UK Government, Scottish Government and Inverclyde Council. "Instead of throwing together task forces when companies go under we should be forming a task force to bring jobs to the area and crucially protect the jobs we already have."