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Badenoch MSP welcomes HIE review reports





Badenoch MSP Kate Forbes
Badenoch MSP Kate Forbes

Badenoch MSP Kate Forbes has welcomed reports of a Scottish Government review of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and Scottish Enterprise.

Kate Forbes MSP vowed to fight for a rural focus in any enterprise body of the future.

She said that depopulation in the Highlands would only be reversed once the region is successfully established “as an attractive place to live, work and do business”.

Ms Forbes, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch said: “Since its foundation in 1965, Highlands and Islands Enterprise has been investing in and promoting the Highlands as a place to do business.

“This was always viewed as a means to reverse depopulation, which is the guiding principle for my own political campaigns and priorities.

“Until we’ve successfully established the Highlands as an attractive place to live, work and do business, I will fight tooth and nail for an enterprise body which considers the unique characteristics of remote and rural Scotland.”

She continued: “I welcome the Government’s review of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise and look forward to reading the conclusions.

“There is always room for improvement and we still haven’t quite solved the problem of depopulation.

“I hope the review examines how we can share resources and best practice across the regions, so that the Highlands benefits from ideas, solutions and resources in other rural areas, like the Borders, as well as urban areas.

“Whatever the review concludes, I hope it recognises the unique pressures facing the Highlands.”

But Highlands and Islands Labour MSP David Stewart has come out fighting for the continuation of the region’s economic agency.

It comes after a new report published by an economic consultant claims the Scottish Government is considering a merger.

Mr Stewart was reacting to Mackay Consultants’ monthly report which says a Minister is looking at merging HIE with Scottish Enterprise.

Tony Mackay said he had various meetings with MSPs in the Scottish Parliament last week including two Ministers.

He said one of them told him about the possible merger in a bid to reduce costs.

Mr Stewart said: “Obviously it is something that we have feared over many years as we’ve seen the agency shrink in size and lose its campaigning voice for the Highlands and Islands.

“With the departure of chief executive Alex Paterson, and an interim chief executive appointed, there have been rumours that this could be the end for the agency in the region.

“What I find incredible is that a consultant appears to be given insider information while MSPs, who represent this area, are being kept in the dark.

“The Scottish Government has had form of being a centralising government, pulling in agencies to the Central Belt.

“With the present economic situation and Brexit the last thing we need is the disappearance of HIE and all the expert knowledge that it contains. Also, we need to develop jobs in the Highlands and Islands, not lose them.

“I will be seeking an urgent meeting with the Secretary for the Economy, Keith Brown, to ask exactly what is going on and why MSPs who represent the area have not been briefed.”

Labour set up the Highlands and Islands Development Board in 1965 to tackle population decline.

In 1991 HIE replaced the Highlands and Islands Development Board. It supports the region’s economic and cultural development.

This year it celebrated 50 years of existence working in a diverse region which extends from Shetland to Argyll, and from the Outer Hebrides to Moray, covering more than half of Scotland’s land mass.


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