Meeting of the Parliament 18 January 2017
I will try to cut down my time to meet your deadline, Presiding Officer.
When I started working in Inverness in 1995, I had little knowledge of HIE. In fact, to be truthful, I was somewhat sceptical of what it had achieved and what it could achieve. However, over the 15 years I worked as a surveyor covering the Highlands, my views changed, and I came to appreciate what HIE had achieved in the north. Of course there were times when my original scepticism surfaced, but that was when the HIE board became political rather than dealing with Highland issues.
It is therefore perhaps strange that, like my colleague Donald Cameron, I wish, at the outset of my speech, to identify with somebody with whom I would not naturally identify. I agree with Professor Jim Hunter’s comment on the SNP Government’s plans for HIE and, as Donald Cameron did, I paraphrase what he said: that, in a country as diverse as ours, this is centralism running riot. I agree with that.
We must never forget why HIE exists. Simply put, it aims to increase the number of people who choose to live, work, study and invest in the Highlands and Islands. We should be asking whether it does that well. I believe that it does, and I will give three examples—in fact, I will give two examples, due to the shortage of time.
First, HIE worked with Highland Council, the University of the Highlands and Islands and Inverness Chamber of Commerce to make viable proposals for the Inverness city deal. The result was a £315 million investment. Secondly, HIE invested £25 million in the UHI campus to help make it possible. The result is a campus that we can be proud of, with huge diversity.
What has that excellent work cost Scotland? As we heard, it is £74 million, but that is shortly to be cut. Is that good value? Before I answer that question, it is worth pointing out that the SNP has already cut HIE’s budget by 11 per cent in six years, abolished the 10 local enterprise companies and, to quote Jim Hunter,
“turned the organisation into a Scottish Government ‘delivery agency’”.