Andrew Liddle
The Scottish Conservatives have thrown their weight behind the Press and Journal’s campaign to keep Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) local.
Donald Cameron MSP warned the agency risked being “swallowed up in the machinery of central government” if moves to scrap the HIE board go ahead.
A review last month recommended that a new single board should be set up to co-ordinate the work of HIE, Scottish Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council.
But Deputy First Minister John Swinney last week provoked a furious response when he confirmed the Holyrood government’s intention to back the plan.
The Press and Journal has now launched a campaign to keep HIE local, which has already gained the support of senior politicians, including the Scottish Liberal Democrats and Scottish Labour.
Last night, Conservative Highlands and Islands MSP Donald Cameron confirmed he would also back the campaign.
He said: “HIE has been instrumental in providing a voice for the islands. Having its own board allows it to advocate for the region as a whole.
“Without it, HIE will simply be swallowed up in the machinery of central government.
“HIE has worked for decades across the island communities, buttressing often fragile economies.
“As an agency, it has built up huge reserves of local knowledge and skills. It’s not perfect, and we must not sentimentalise it.
“But it has quietly and slowly helped business flourish by applying a real understanding as to how resources can be best used locally, and amongst the small communities within which it operates.”
The agency, which has just moved into £13million headquarters at Inverness Campus, claims to have played a part in growing the population by more than 20% since its creation, while rebalancing the local economy.
HIE’s work last year was estimated to have helped create or retain 855 jobs in the region, including 124 in “fragile areas”, while securing £111million in foreign investment.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “There is no threat to HIE, which is fully protected, as we announced at the outcome to the Phase 1 review, and as the HIE Chairman confirmed last week.”
