The Highlands and Islands looks set to move from the periphery to the heart of the new economy.
These are good times for the Highlands and Islands. The pressures on transport and housing stem from the opportunities for growth - a reverse after many decades of decline.
However, it's more favoured for its tourism appeal, in an industry given booster rockets by the power of Instagram. It has many of Scotland's most important food and drink successes, and many more of its answers to the climate emergency. The HIE strategy reflects changes afoot in the economy - space launchpads, marine bio-technology, more potential for the creative industries.
Rail services are little faster than taking the car. The Scottish government says it intends to electrify the main line between Perth and Inverness by 2035. The A96 between Inverness and Aberdeen, an important link for agriculture, distillers, tourism and the energy sector, is also crying out for more capacity and bypasses.The case for improved transport infrastructure is there for all to see. It has come in waves. Most Highland settlements grew up around railway stations.
David Bell, an economics professor who retired from Stirling University to return to his Dornoch roots two years ago, says those bridges were "visionary". He adds that the case for improved A9 should be extended north of Inverness as energy traffic comes to Easter Ross.It's not all about the Inverness area. A big part of the Highlands and Islands success story of the past 50 years flowed from European structural funds.
Skye has seen a long campaign to retain services in the north of the island. If you're not familiar with the island, it's probably bigger than you think, the moreso if you need medical help in a hurry.The list of challenges goes on. I haven't mentioned uncertainty around farming subsidies and potential no-fishing zones, or the pressure on roads and services from the marketing success of the North Coast 500.
The 'just transition' being promised for those workers with the move to renewable power has its sceptics. It doesn't look like the jobs bonanza that oil brought, or at least not the pay bonanza that came with those jobs. Like the oil and gas industry, most of this will be over the horizon. Also like fossil fuels, many of the jobs will be in onshore engineering and support.Image source,Cromarty Firth is one of the two Scottish sites chosen to host a green freeportBut much more capacity for assembling offshore equipment is required. In Wester Ross, another former oil platform fabrication yard at Loch Kishorn is back in action.
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