FINANCIAL support is being made available to encourage people to live in Inverclyde.
Inverclyde Council has launched two new one-off grants aimed at retaining existing residents and attracting new people to the area.
The initiative is part of the local authority’s strategy to reverse the area’s declining population.
A new £300 ‘Stay and Study Grant’ aims to encourage Inverclyde residents who have to travel outwith the area for education or training to continue living locally while completing their studies and plan their long-term future in Inverclyde.
The council has also launched a £400 ‘Relocation Grant’ as an incentive for people to move to Inverclyde by covering some of the costs of settling into a new home.
A third £300 ‘New Scots Support into Work Grant’ will be launched soon to encourage people from minority ethnic backgrounds to continue living in Inverclyde by supporting their route into employment.
The council has also taken on a dedicated community repopulation officer.
The grants will be distributed on a ‘first-come’ basis to people who meet the eligibility criteria over the next two years or until the available funding has been exhausted. The council has allocated an initial £22,000 towards all three grant schemes.
Councillor Stephen McCabe, leader of Inverclyde Council, said: “Our population has been declining for a long time for a variety of factors, including falling birth rates and loss of big employers, and reversing that trend won’t happen overnight but these new grants are the first baby steps in our repopulation strategy.
“We need to try and retain people who are already living in Inverclyde and discourage them from leaving the area whether that’s for education, training or work, and we also need to encourage people from out with Inverclyde to come and live here, and these new grants target both of those groups.
“Inverclyde is a fantastic place to live, work, visit and do business and we hope these grants will help tackle some of the challenges with retaining and attracting people to the area.”
The latest update from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) released on Tuesday showed that in the year to mid-2025, population fell in 20 of Scotland’s 32 council areas.
In Inverclyde, the population fell slightly by 190 – or 0.2 per cent – with an estimated population of 78,550 to 30 June 2025.
The decrease was due to natural change – more deaths (1,092) than births (571) – offset by net migration of 310, which is made up of people moving to Inverclyde from abroad or other parts of the UK.
For more information about the grants, eligibility criteria and to find out how to apply, visit www.inverclyde.gov.uk/living
