Fort William’s future has just been rewritten. After 10 months under review, Liberty House is buying the aluminium smelter from Rio Tinto Alcan.
It is a new chapter for the century-old smelter, which has long been a source of transformation, employment and pride for Lochaber.
The smelter and hydro scheme were built on the foundation stones of community benefit and commercial innovation. Lochaber was the first place to enjoy electricity thanks to the hydro station and two new villages were built in Inverlochy and Kinlochleven to accommodate the hundreds of people attracted to work there.
A century later, the challenges facing the West Highlands aren’t too dissimilar. We want career opportunities, affordable housing, sustainable development and better connectivity.
The smelter is immensely significant as an economic asset not just for Lochaber, but for Scotland. The plant itself has around 150 employees – and including contractors and the supply chain, the smelter supports jobs for several hundred people. That is a significant number of jobs.
My hope was always to preserve these jobs and continue operations at the smelter, but I think that Liberty House’s ambitions could put Fort William in the driving seat of industrial expansion, career opportunities and sustainable economic growth. It’s not going to be business as usual. Instead, it is going to be new ideas, more jobs and greater long-term prosperity for Lochaber.
We also should consider the significance of this announcement at a national level. The smelter puts Lochaber right at the forefront of the Scottish Government’s ambitions for a low-carbon economy as the aluminum is produced by renewable energy. In fact, Fort William produces the greenest aluminum in the world. Whilst most of the world is still supplying aluminum using carbon-intensive methods, we’ve been using hydro for almost a hundred years.
So, it won’t surprise you to read that I’m excited about the future. Yes, I’m pleased that there’s certainty the smelter will continue to operate and that the link between the smelter and the hydro station will remain intact. But I’m more excited about what Liberty House’s ambitions for the smelter mean for West Highland communities. I hope that their commitment to the community will result in excellent job opportunities, homes for everybody and brilliant connectivity.
The nature of the agreement with the Scottish Government means that we’ll all be keeping a close eye on the buyer to ensure they deliver as promised.
