In Drumchapel, the First Minister dropped in on The Play Centre and met staff, volunteers and families who used the centre.

He praised it for its “drive” in providing training and services for the community.

He said it was a “fabulous example of projects that I love”.

(Image: SNP)

Swinney said it was an example of “social enterprises which have been created from the community and then one thing has led to another”.

He said: “This facility has been taken over. It's a magnet for activity, that gives training in digital skills, in design and fabric, in childcare and it's coming from the community.

“Part of the role of government is to activate and encourage and motivate good efforts in communities, fundamentally these communities to be able to have the drive to take them forward and that's what I've seen here, a really vibrant project.”

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(Image: SNP)

The First Minister was campaigning in the area ahead of the Drumchapel Anniesland by-election to elect a councillor to replace Patricia Ferguson, who became the Glasgow West MP.

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He also visited The Pantry in Ruchazie and stopped off at the charity Debra, in Maryhill too.

(Image: SNP) (Image: SNP)

Swinney said it was “delivering affordable food for people on low incomes, a café with high-quality food and allotments created”.

He said: “ It is very impressive. It is the pump priming of a bit of Scottish Government intervention a bit of local government intervention but crucially it is the community leading on it.”

The SNP leader said he has seen a recovery since the General Election in July where the SNP last all six Westminster seats in Glasgow.

He said: “Since July, we've won four local by-elections. We haven’t won local by-elections for years and we’ve won four.

“We'd like to be winning more, of course.

“I think we're on a recovery from July.

“July was a big setback. I’ve accepted how big a setback it was for us, but we're on an electoral recovery and we've got four seats under our belt since July and people are working really hard to rebuild the relationship and trust that needs to exist between the SNP and the public.

“And that's why I'm out and about listening to local people, local projects to hear what they're saying and reflecting that on the government's plans.”