Highlands and Islands "dying" due to depopulation, warns MSP

Tim Eagle, a Conservative MSP for the Highlands and Islands, said communities were at "breaking point" as he led a debate on June 12.

 

The reasons are "many and varied", the motion explained, including "a lack of affordable housing, unreliable public transport, ageing infrastructure, a lack of opportunities for young people, and the inability to easily access healthcare and education services".

 

It acknowledged the Scottish Government’s recent ’Action Plan to Address Depopulation’, which revealed 14 council areas, including Argyll and Bute and the Western Isles, are projected to decline in population over the next decade.

 

Na h-Eileanan an Iar’s SNP MSP, Alasdair Allan, said: "My constituency famously includes the island of Hiort, or St Kilda. Next year marks the 90th anniversary of the evacuation of the last of that island’s population. 

 

"It is far from the most recent island in my constituency to be abandoned—Taransay, Heisker and Scarp all spring to mind. All those examples make it only too clear what, ultimately, depopulation can mean and what happens if we do not meet the needs of rural and island communities today."

 

Listing problems, and his solution, Mr Eagle said: "General practices in rural Scotland are closing at more than twice the rate of those in central belt health board areas. Argyll and Bute Council was the first local authority in Scotland to declare a housing emergency.

 

"The lack of reliable ferry services is contributing to population decline on the islands. Essential broadband services were meant to be delivered through the R100 programme in 2021, but their delivery is behind schedule.

 

"Parents are having problems affording childcare, accessing it when they need it, and finding resources for children under the age of three. Highland Council is forecasting a 23 per cent fall in pupil numbers across its 29 secondary schools within the next 15 years."

 

The MSP - previously a councillor in Moray - urged the SNP to increase the rural budget, and "rural-proof" their policies. "Rural areas need a new funding formula that recognises the increased costs and difficulties of providing services over a much wider geographical area," he said. "They need a new model for recruiting and retaining professionals in key roles."

 

The region’s fellow Tory MSP, Jamie Halcro Johnston, offered: "The school estate in the Highlands is the worst in Scotland. We want people to be able to stay, they have to be confident their children will be educated in safe schools that enhance their learning.

 

"At the weekend, it was announced the last national health service dentist in Kyle is to be lost. That means there will be no NHS dentist for the whole of that area. If we are trying to encourage people to stay in our rural communities or to move there, the healthcare they will need must be there."

 

Rhoda Grant, Labour’s Highlands and Islands MSP, added: "If workers cannot find a place to live, they cannot take up a job opportunity that may involve providing a public service. We heard earlier about Portree hospital, which is often closed because of a lack of staff. According to NHS Highland, that is largely due to a lack of housing.

 

"How will the Scottish Government meet the housing needs of our rural areas that are distant from cities, where the cost of building a home is 10 times—or sometimes hundreds of times—more expensive than in urban areas? 

 

"Such rural areas have houses, but they are being bought up as second homes or holiday lets. Those types of housing are pricing out local people, who are often low paid or are working multiple jobs simply to make one wage.

 

"Poverty is higher in rural areas. Even before the cost of living crisis, costs were between 15 per cent and 30 per cent higher in rural and island communities.

 

"We are getting to the point at which rural Scotland will simply be a playground for the rich, deserted by ordinary people who would wish to make their home and raise their family there but cannot afford to do so."

 

Emma Roddick, an SNP Highlands and Islands MSP, said: "In many towns and tourist hot spots across the Highlands and Islands, more than half of the residential houses are being used as short-term lets.

 

"In Ullapool, the average house price last recorded was more than £310,000, largely because many of the available houses are being used as short-term lets.

 

"The solution is not just about building new homes, but about retaining the stock that we have and driving down costs.

 

"We also need to talk ourselves up. We will not attract people to move to, or invest in, the Highlands and Islands if all that they hear is that nobody wants to live there and that services are struggling."

 

The Minister for Equalities, Kaukab Stewart, concluded: "We all realise the challenges are complex and multifaceted, with clear links to many areas of Government delivery, but my colleagues on the ministerial population task force and I are committed to responding to those challenges."