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How A Film Studio, Better Transport, And Smarter Spending Can Supercharge A City
We map how Stirling plans to turn momentum into durable local wealth through new sectors, smarter procurement and a stronger startup culture. Alan Connery shares what the council’s economic development team is building, from a film studio to an events‑ready City Park.
• remit and scope of economic development in Stirling
• sector focus across manufacturing, life sciences, digital health and tourism
• leveraging external funding to unlock property and infrastructure
• inward investment aligned to local value add
• demographics, talent pipeline and connectivity advantages
• partner coordination across STEP, Chamber, FSB, CodeBase, BID
• definition and pillars of community wealth building
• plural ownership models and fair work principles
• land use for social value and productive assets
• anchor procurement to retain local spend
• film studio impact on supply chains and hospitality
• City Park enabling major, lower‑friction events
• next‑12‑month priorities and business support routes
Check out the council website. Contact Business Gateway Stirling or your local BID, CodeBase, Chamber or university—whoever you reach first will connect you back to us
Welcome back to Studio King Street in the heart of Sterling. I'm your host, Neil Monday, and we have the Sterling Business Podcast here today. And our guest, fantastic guest from Sterling Council, Alan Connery, service manager for economic growth. Been with the council just under a year now. We've got to know each other pretty well over that time. And I'm really delighted, Alan, that you've spent the time to come and talk to us about your organization, what you do within the council in the economic development team. So with that in mind, would you like to make an introduction for the listeners?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, thanks very much, Neil. Great to be here. Thanks for having us as well. So I'm Alan Connery, I'm the service manager for economic development at Sterling Council. So, like you said, I've been uh with Sterling Council a year. Um I've got quite uh nearly 20 years in economic development at um international, national, and local levels. So uh I've worked across this is my third local authority now in Scotland. Uh I've worked with Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Development International. Um previously I've worked private sector as well. Um even going right far back as a paperboy at twelve years old. So um quite a varied career in that sense.
SPEAKER_00:Paperboy, paperboy economic development names that fit together, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean it's you get different insights, but yeah, it's maybe things have moved on with that sort of job nowadays, but I still see it see them doing it, and it's uh yeah gets you out working, that's early early days and brings that work ethic, which I've carried with me my whole career. So you pick up different things no matter what job you're doing.
SPEAKER_00:Brilliant. Okay. So tell us a little bit about the remit of your team within the council. Um what do you you know what what's the structure, the scope of what uh what you do on a day-to-day basis?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so fun uh fundamentally economic developments are all about helping businesses start, helping businesses grow. Um a very varied uh line of work. Uh it takes you into anything from creating that culture of entrepreneurship, so working with um schools, for example, to help embed more business support or entrepreneurship as a sort of topic area uh throughout the curriculum, helping young people believe that it's a viable career option if that's what they want to do. Um take you into all aspects like housing and public transport, um, which is more relevant for rural areas in Sterling, for example. So there's some great businesses in our rural areas in Stirling where they've got great growth potential but are constrained because they don't have the that there's not enough housing, for example, or the the range of transport options to help get people to work and to to live and work in the area, for example. So it can take you in all sorts of different ways. Uh the team itself covers all sorts of we leverage external funding from Scottish UK governments and other sources as well, uh, which helps accelerate, in some cases, capital investment in commercial property. So um we have a large-scale new film studio, which will be one of the biggest um film studio campuses in the whole of Scotland when it's developed uh next year. Um there's there's other ways in which the team help the city centre development, for example, um, and also we market and sell sterling in in a polite way of obviously to attract business new businesses to the area that would be inward investment. Yes, yeah, I I'd I'm not one for jargon, but yes, the inward investment, if you want to call it that. Bringing investment into the area is is the plain English. Um, because that's where we will add some value to the economy. We're not trying to bring in companies that are competing directly with companies in the area, it's where there's a a value add in specific sectoral areas, for example, um life science or health, uh digital health and wellness, for example, or tourism. Uh so there's lots of different ways. Uh it's you you get a very broad view of the economy, you meet loads of different businesses, and it's an exciting area to work in.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, it sounds like I mean it's probably the most exciting area in the within the council, I would have thought at the moment, particularly in Sterling, because so much going on. Um not only was it you know voted the um you know one of the best places to live in Scotland uh with Right Move, but you've got um other things um like the Love Local uh awards and uh and also the Ernst ⁇ Young reports, and it's one of what three top investable cities in the UK? How long do you think this has been going on? Um, you know, this phenomenon in terms of the the uh the hype that's kind of building up around Stirling there?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean I've lived in Stirling 24 years, so um I've sort of lived and breathed it. I've never worked in the area, so this is where it's different, and and that's what appealed to me uh when this opportunity came up that uh finally get a chance to live and contribute and and work in the same area. So uh I I I came up for university, uh I'm actually Scottish by background, but uh you wouldn't pick that up from the accent. But um I've got lots of family connections locally as well. So I think as an area it's probably um really undersold itself a lot. Uh it's a great place to live and work, obviously I'm biased, but um it's it really is. I mean, it comes through in all the surveys which which we see, which are independent. You know, we don't pay for any of these sorts of feedback we get on whether it's a fast-growing area or not. Um the interesting thing I see with some of the particularly around the statistics is is around the demographics and how that's changing. Stirling's a a net grower in in its population, which is quite different from a lot of areas in the UK where you're seeing areas sort of decline and the age profile increasing. Um so we're actually in a good space in Stirling where you've got a sort of generally a younger working age population increasing and more interest in people moving around.
SPEAKER_00:And a pretty thriving university to uh colleges to feed from.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, yeah. That ecosystem is really important where the college, the university, there's loads of different types of business support providers, um, such as uh Stirling um Enterprise Park, STEP, uh the the Chamber, Federation of Small Businesses, Code Base, um and the bid itself as well. Uh so there's a really vibrant and varied range of support partners here to help companies. Um it's a great opportunity, I think, to to leverage a lot of that network uh to really expand and support companies going forward.
SPEAKER_00:So what do you think the um the the the introduction of the uh the film studio and some of the uh the other industries, um what do you think that's going to do in terms of kind of jobs and and and fueling economic growth from a you know labour perspective going forward?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean uh I think part of the success of Sterling has got to be around the diversity in in uh in employers and various industries. So it's quite a got a very varied mix. Uh so a lot of people probably wouldn't uh associate manufacturing, for example, in sterling. That actually comes through a lot in the statistics. It's probably the nature of manufacturing, whether it's food and drink or life sciences, for example, where people may not associate sterling as a manufacturing area, but it does have quite a heritage of in manufacturing. Um it's not the sort of heavy metal bashing type stuff. Uh we don't really do that really broadly in the UK anymore. Yeah, it's more discrete manufacturing than more advanced manufacturing higher end um it so there's a real opportunity to sort of leverage that construction as in other sectors, some big companies uh based locally that are uh expert in house building, for example. So there's a few industries that are sort of uh commonly wouldn't be associated with sterling, which I'm keen to do more um to promote that within Sterling, um, as obviously as well as the core mainstays which people would typically associate as tourism or hospitality in these sorts of industries. So um yeah, I think uh the diversity is pretty critical. I think um, you know, years ago um obviously some of the bigger employers in the private sector, at least, like Prudential was a big employer. Um from experience I've seen that be quite a big risk um for areas. Um when I used to work in North Lanarkshire, for example, um I wasn't there when uh Ravens Craig had the major steelworks. Um but that that caused absolute devastation for you know still 30, 40 years after that collapsed, uh 10,000 job losses, and it can be catastrophic for an area. So there's a diverse there's a strength in diversity really, and um that's the sort of ethos that you see in Stirling's economic strategy going forwards.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I think I suppose with with the um the location of Stirling in in the context of Scotland, it's so central, so easily accessible, fantastic, you know, transport routes in and out of Stirling as a hub. Um do you see uh Stirling attracting people coming in from the from Edinburgh and Glasgow going forward in terms of you know establishing their kind of careers and and and building their their profiles here?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean I'd certainly want us to be in that space. We're not I don't think we're quite there yet. It's uh perhaps more uh better place to live than work, but that's partly my job to correct that, help get more companies, different types of employment opportunities in the area. Um I think it it speaks for itself, the quality of life here. Um transport connections are interesting because the sort of rail connections are fantastic to two major cities, and we've got obviously the LUMO services starting next um year, which will give uh Stirling four direct services a day to London. So connectivity in that sense is good. It's more of an issue when you get out with the city boundaries and how we really ensure that that you know the benefits of that connectivity.
SPEAKER_00:Can be extended across Stirlingshire as possible to send.
SPEAKER_01:Um so that's a longer-term issue for us. You know, I think that's again, these are sort of multi-decade-long issues that we're dealing with. Go back to the 60s with the beaching review, um, which if imagine we had a rail connection from Stirling to Calendar and beyond today, it it would be a massive draw for tourism. And uh it's a beautiful route. Um we don't have that, and the it's that I I don't envisage that I'm not a transport expert, but I don't envisage that coming back. There's there's various issues um around the former trail, the original uh rail line now. But that's not to say we can think a bit more creatively about how we've got to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we use transport in a different way, they electrify it, electrification of uh vehicles and things like that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and we can think differently about how transport solutions can work in the future. So um yeah, there's lots of potential in that sort of space too.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, good. So you talked a little bit earlier about uh Enterprise Park and uh STEP and the chambers bid. Um how do you typically interact as a council with some of these other entities within uh within within the geography?
SPEAKER_01:Yep, so we've uh we meet actually, we've got a sort of business support partners, um, a group that meets every uh quarter, uh is intentioned to me, every quarter. So um that just keeps everyone up to speed with where each organization is at, with the sort of projects they're leading on and where they're going. So we're aligning that support in the back end so that we don't overlap. Um it might um each organization has its sort of USPs where it can help. So um it ensures that coordination's critical in the background, and um that's where we can bring new ideas to that forum about different intel or insights that other organizations are hearing. And again, whether it's for myself or others to help address that, we can all work collectively to do that.
SPEAKER_00:So it acts as a coordination hub, this committee if you like to you know kind of feel the requests coming in from different uh Yeah, absolutely, and the chambers involved as well and the university, college.
SPEAKER_01:So we're all speaking to each other, uh, anyone that has that sort of um focus about supporting businesses. Um there's obviously a connection within myself as well, there's a lot of business-facing services in the council, whether that's licensing or trading standards or planning or whoever it is, and there's there's a job there to ensure that coordination happens as well, so that it can, you know, we can be as uh business friendly as possible.
SPEAKER_00:Great, okay. So the the community uh coming together is obviously a big deal within Sterling, right? We we're seeing this first hand with our business here on King Street. Um we hear the term referenced a lot community wealth building, okay, from the council's perspective in the context of community, but it's probably a lot broader than that. Um what would you say the definition in your mind is of community wealth building and how does that apply to Sterling?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So um community wealth building uh is fundamentally a new economic development concept or theory. So without getting too uh academic on it, um it it's really a new way of restructuring the economy is is a different way of looking at it. If you took it to um you know to an extreme level. So uh there's a sort of principle within uh community wealth building, is this the theory that uh the current economic model that we operate both globally really and in the UK is quite an extractive model. That um companies typically have top-down ownership that extract wealth from an area, typically. Um whereas community wealth building isn't trying to encourage more collective ownership. So there's there's five pillars, if you like, for community wealth building. One is around uh first around plural ownership, which sounds a bit uh it's not very clear what that is, but really plural ownership is about how employees have a stake in the business. So you look at the typical ways that people would set up a business, would be a limited company vehicle with partnership, for example, sole trader would be the main ones. There's also cooperative models, there's employee ownership models, uh, there's trust type models as well. And they're far less common. Uh they're not well understood. Um, the business support networks that we spoke about don't typically promote them in in that sort of way. Um, certain sectors lend themselves better than others to these sorts of models. Um, but to to for the listeners uh to bring it to life a bit, I mean co-op is is an obvious example of a cooperative that is an actual business model by name, um, but others still can be called cooperatives. It's not trademarked in that way. Um, John Lewis, another one, it's employer-owned business. And that there are lots of examples locally. And the logic is that um we typically see from the research that's been done on these models that when employees have a share in the business, they're share in the profits, obviously, much like any directors of the business do. They um have a voice in the organization. So they get to uh vote, you know, have a say in the direction of travel strategically or where the business goes and topical issues that they might want to address. So that's quite a critical one. Um another one's just on fair work, it sort of relates to that. So a bit about whether it's trade unions uh make may not appear initially relevant for a small business, but it's about that employee voice. Do employees have a chance to inform the direction of the business, is generally where that's coming from. There's uh a piece around the sort of really social use of land, so that uh we've seen uh different community use legislation come through, for example, that um if land's held privately, there was there was uh the first test of this legislation came in in St Andrews, actually, where a private um owner had a sort of small uh garden plot area right in the centre of St Andrews. It had been vacant for ten years or more. Pretty unproductive, and it's not really helping uh the local area grow or uh do printing. Yes, um and the local community had been very keen to do something with it as a development trust. So they used that legislation the first test of that, where they were they were forced by law, the owners, to sell it to the community, so to turn it into productive use. Um and then there's there's a procurement angle as a key part of community wealth building as well, which is um a bit about what you've discussed before about your the working flexible business wealth building, community wealth building model, how you connect suppliers and you bring businesses to sell to each other and use that network. And in principle, it's the exact same. It's uh more from uh public, large public organizations like the university, the college, the NHS, Forth Valley, Council, and the collect the cumulative value of that spend will be in the sort of high hundreds of millions, if not a billion pounds, locally. So if we're able to channel as much as high percentage as possible into local businesses to supply services, goods and services to us, then you can see the the redistributive effect of that. And the logic behind it, theoretically, is that um and it again it's been proven in different studies, that um if if the if local authorities or others spend money with companies, it tends to recirculate six to eight times in the local economy. Whereas if it tends to go to large global multinationals, it tends to circulate once or twice and then it leaves the UK. So we don't we lose the benefit of that money recirculating. So there's quite a lot of ways, um, without being too technical, what community wealth building means. Uh is quite a structural change, as you can probably gather from the sort of nature of the topics that it covers. But uh we we can I think there's a good opportunity to make some really high impact stuff. There's some amazing development trusts and companies already doing this, to be honest, in Sterling. Anyway, there'll be some listeners will no doubt be saying, well, this isn't new at all, and that's that's great, and we want to hear and see more of those. Um not saying it's right for everyone, but at least if we're educating businesses about the potential of that. Um sometimes uh we've seen them like private privately held companies, owners perhaps want to go uh retire, for example, or sell the company and hadn't known or understood that these options exist. So there's an education piece there for us to just ensure businesses are informed about what different models exist and how that can be facilitated as well, because it can be quite complicated, but yeah, there's public support there for that.
SPEAKER_00:So the the film studio um which is on the doorstep from where we're where we're starting right now, probably be here in what, six, eight months from now. Um how do you think that uh an institution like that will have an impact on Stirling and the community wealth building conversation that we've just had?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's uh a double-edged question. So yeah, um I mean the studio itself, so we're we're effectively creating a fairly new sector in Stirling, so there'll be a new industry of the screen sector. There's a lot of strong creative companies in the area already, so there's um yeah, an opportunity, we're not sure um the scale of the opportunity for local companies yet, because the studio is still being developed, obviously. Um there'll be an opportunity for an operator to manage that studio, so the council isn't going to run the studio um for obvious reasons. We don't run film studios. Um so it it'll all become clear once we are able to work with the operator, see what the supply chains are, and then work with local companies and and promote the opportunity as much as we can about how those gaps can be filled.
SPEAKER_00:And I guess the economic impact could be pretty huge for hospitality, for you know, the restaurants, bars, cafes of more and more film crews coming to the area. I mean, obviously Stirlingshire in general and the Fourth by the Fourth Valley is, you know, well known for its filmmaking. Um there's been uh there's been a lot of movies and a lot of kind of TV programmes and what have you made across the region. This is obviously just going to magnify that and make that a bit more significant. But um I guess it will definitely have an impact on all the local businesses in terms of helping them thrive and grow by bringing a different demographic into Sterling. That's not coming here today, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, uh yeah, absolutely. And and a lot of the uh the broadening the opportunity across the entirety of Sterling's really important and uh the location opportunities in Sterling are are incredible. Um so it's key uh key that we actually get to identify those, promote that to um location directors to really put as much on the map as possible. Um, you know, there will be opportunities for local communities to benefit from that directly, whether it's financially or in kind um from filming happening in the area. And just getting some structure and clarity around that will be really good. Um I mean, even in in past roles of of uh sort of ran a sort of locations uh filming service in in North Lanarkshire. That was Lanarkshire Screen Locations, and and there was all sorts of associated benefits where even individual uh property. Owners can can list their house, for example, for filming purposes. So that's probably at the extreme end of what people might feel comfortable doing. But even if it's filming on you know a park of public land or um even we've had schools leased in the past and things like that, that's money coming back in for renting the school or things like that. Um so that it's really quite vast the opportunity to be honest. Um so very excited, but um you know it's key we keep a bit of realism about what the opportunity is until we're really sure um what that is. But yep, the associated benefits for hospitality and tourism generally uh could be vast.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, brilliant. And then there was a recent uh announcement about um the development of the Sterling Park and as an events um I guess uh concert kind of events venue. That's pretty exciting.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so um obviously we've had a lot of success. Um this actually doesn't come under me to be honest, but I can still speak to it. But yeah, uh City Park will be a phenomenal events venue, the backdrop you know second to none. Um so uh the City Park uh project is looking to do uh bring a lot of City Deal funding into make the site more um both environmentally friendly to run, uh bit more uh cheaper to run for operators, uh venue operators really, or promoters. So um it brings some of the utility connections on site. So um I've been told I oversimplify, but it's plug and play basically the site. So that uh usually makes it a bit clearer what we're doing. So the the works itself uh are not you know that uh you won't see anything happening on the site. Um we've obviously got to be cognizant of the view that people come to Stirling to see from the castle, so that'll all go through the planning process and things too. So um, but as an opportunity, uh it will dramatically uh push the dial on and bring in more footfall into Stirling. Yeah, and fundamentally it'll be a huge opportunity to bring major events on a regular basis. Uh and we it needn't just be focused on music events, but all sorts of different events that could could be um held in that space. So um, you know, there's drainage works and fairly uh nuts and bolts stuff that uh listeners will probably get a bit bored of talking about in detail. But um it's a really exciting project and and that um that's a sort of based on industry feedback that they would come again, but they need these issues need addressed. So um yeah, uh those sorts of things, both the studio and city park completing in the next year, uh will really start to move the dial a bit on putting sterling on the map, both for events and and different industry.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Great. So what um we're coming to the end of uh our our chat yet, Alan? So what what would you say the key objectives are for the economic uh growth team over the next uh twelve months? Where are you going to be placing your bets?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I don't bet it's public money now. But uh no, I mean it it's it's important that uh we get out as much as possible speak to companies. Um there'll be some new funding hopefully coming from UK government that will hopefully get a chance to um shape some new types of business support, bringing all the partners together to to really um bring bring that together. And uh what I'm keen to see is that companies start feeling a bit bit of a sea change. Uh just culture feel, and I think some of the stats that are coming through and the stories that don't pay for any of that. That's just consultants doing their own research, like the Ernst Young and the fastest growing economy type stuff. That sort of narrative just feeds into the thing that we're doing the right things, and we're starting to lay the groundworks for um creating a both a short and longer term future, a better future for Stirling's economy. Um moving the dial a bit on some uh the sort of culture of enterprise, both in schools and in and the environment. If we can put Sterling on the map as a more of a start-up location, that'll be a real real success, leveraging some of the students at both at the college and university, trying to retain people in the area. Um I'm probably over-emphasising this for 12 months, but uh I think you I'm not gonna pin pin ourselves down to any particular numbers, but uh, I think if we're starting to see the the framework and the foundations being laid for a really uh positive future for economic development and the businesses in Sterling, I think that feedback will start coming in and spades, hopefully.
SPEAKER_00:Brilliant. Okay. So where can people where can the listeners find out more about what you guys are up to and you know where the priorities are?
SPEAKER_01:Yep, so um obviously the you can more than welcome to check out the council website. Um but any sort of business support, contact your business gateway, Sterling Service is probably the best for port of call or your local bid or code base, uh any of the others, the chamber, university, whoever you get to, we're all connected together and you'll get back to us eventually. So that's great.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thanks, Alan. It's been uh fantastic talking to you and uh getting the perspective from the council on where Stirling's gone. So thank you very much. More than welcome, thank you. Thank you. So we come to the end of another Sterling Business Podcast. Uh thank you again for uh for my guest today, and I look forward to coming back with uh more enriching content within the next couple of weeks.