BIDS are set to be submitted to three new UK Government funds by Glasgow City Council.

Councillors have agreed to apply to community renewal, levelling up and community ownership funds.

Glasgow has been listed as a priority area in two of the three programmes.

Work has started on the bids which will be brought back to councillors for final approval.

They need to be submitted by June 18 and announcements will be made in late July.

The criteria and timescales have been described as “challenging”.

Council leader Susan Aitken said: “As a local authority, we have a combination of assets which I think put us in a very good position.

“Officers have already done a lot of work in this area, in identifying projects for either capital or revenue funding that we can move forward quickly.

“Those projects, I believe, are of very high quality.”

Glasgow is a top priority for the community renewal and levelling up programmes.

The £220m community renewal fund prioritises investing in skills, local businesses and communities as well as supporting people into work.

A shortlist of projects, with up to £3m per place, will be submitted.

At least £800m of the £4.8billion levelling up fund has been set aside for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

It will support projects which require up to £20m, with a focus on smaller transport schemes, town centre and high street regeneration and maintaining cultural assets.

There can be £50m for “high value” transport projects. MPs are expected to back one “priority” bid in their constituency.

The £150m community ownership fund has been designed to help community groups buy or take over “at risk” community assets – such as sports clubs, music venues, pubs or post offices – and run them as community-owned businesses. They can access up to £250,000 in match-funding.

Ms Aitken described the bidding process for the ‘levelling up’ fund as “complicated”.

The number of bids is dependent on the number of MPs in each area, she said.

“For Glasgow, that means we are higher than other UK local authorities other than Birmingham and Leeds”, she added.

“This is an unusual way of having criteria for bidding for funds, however it is the one that’s been set.”

The Glasgow City Region has a list of ‘ready to go’ projects and many are within the £20m limit. Some of these could the subject of bids.

Ms Aitken said the “groundwork has already been done” on these projects.

“It’s important what goes forward this year is what we know can be delivered.

“It doesn’t mean there won’t be opportunities to take forward other good projects in the future.”

The UK Government has stated there will be future rounds of ‘levelling up’ funding, councillors were told.

Ms Aitken also said there is a “lot of crossover” between the community ownership fund and ongoing work on community asset transfers in Scotland.

Glasgow Tories leader Thomas Kerr said “getting funding directly to us” to “focus on our priorities and not just government priorities” is a “step in the right direction”.

Ms Aitken responded: “These do have criteria; we can’t just spend them on what we want.

“They are fairly broad criteria and, as it happens, they do align with our own strategic priorities, which the funding we generally get does.”

Schemes which receive funding must be financially completed by March 31.