A good quality built environment fosters a confident, effective and cultured society and delivers many benefits. Architecture and Design Scotland has a specific interest, and significant expertise, in achieving best value from infrastructure investment programmes. We therefore welcome the opportunity to comment on the Scottish Government’s Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) initiative.

Architecture and Design Scotland would endorse many of the statements included in the early paragraphs of the consultation paper, and would accept that a pragmatic approach needs to be adopted in which the best aspects of existing processes can be retained and evolved. However, if the SFT is to be developed as an alternative mechanism for capital funding, it needs to ensure that it will deliver projects and places of quality.