Hansard

I was glad to be able to attend the rural and islands youth parliament in Fort William. To see so many young people there was really refreshing. The parliament gives them the opportunity to talk about the issues that have had an impact on them. It is very important that we listen to young people, because they are the very people we need to retain in our rural and island communities to address depopulation.

I welcome the tone of the cabinet secretary’s comments in that regard, and I hope that they lead to a step change in dealing with young people’s very real concerns. At the moment, we are forcing them out of rural and island communities, rather than retaining them.

Rightly, housing was one of the main issues that the youth parliament talked about, and it called for reform of the housing market to meet the needs of rural and island communities. The market is failing those communities, and there needs to be a rebalancing of power between communities and the market. Those communities need to be empowered. They need affordable housing. However, by “affordable housing”, we are not talking about what urban communities would see as housing association housing or council housing, although rural and island communities need that, too. The truth is that price inflation is so great that it does not reflect the market conditions in those areas, and it does not reflect the average wages there. A lot of people in rural and island areas simply want to buy, like everybody else, and to be able to enter the market.

On top of that, we need to consider a range of options, such as council housing, affordable housing through housing associations and croft housing. However, the croft housing grant does not allow for such things as an office, an extra room for bed and breakfast or a room to work as a weaver. It does not allow for remote working from the croft house. We need to consider different solutions for different people, and there has to be a diverse range of solutions for young people.

Investing in housing is good at the moment, and that can have an impact on one person. However, if we do not consider ways to retain that housing for the population who live and work in rural and island areas, we are wasting that money. We need to take rural housing burdens into account to ensure that the houses cannot be sold on as second homes or holiday homes.

The young people at the youth parliament rightly talked about health and wellbeing. We can understand why when we listen to young people talking about their access to health services and their distance from them. The parliament focused a lot on mental health—as young people do—and talked about self-help and online support. There is no such thing as privacy in a rural area. There is no access to public transport. People cannot go to access services on their own. They need to involve others, and that comes with stigma.

The youth parliament talked about the desperately long waiting lists for CAMHS and about young people’s transitions to adult services. My colleague Pam Duncan-Glancy tried to address that issue through her Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill. Sadly, this Parliament voted it down, but it would have addressed some of the young people’s concerns.

We also need to look at transport in relation to health. Once again, the A9 north is blocked because of the snow. Imagine being in labour and giving birth while on the A9 when it is blocked because of a snowdrift. That is a possibility. We have been told that it is unsafe for any pregnant women with complications to give birth in Wick. We need to make sure that local services are in place so that people never face that situation.

It is the same with ferries and buses. There are very few buses, and ferries are often cancelled, which means that young people cannot access the services that they need.

However, it was not all doom and gloom. The young people talked about there being lots of opportunities. They saw themselves as being involved in reform to address the problems. They wanted to be directly involved in the reform of education, which does not meet their needs. They were very clear that there are opportunities, not just in traditional industries but in new technologies, which they want to be able to access. There is no reason why they cannot do that, because of the way in which those are delivered. That would give them a huge opportunity to be able to stay in their communities and access not just traditional jobs but new and different jobs.

The Scottish Labour Party brings those issues to the Parliament every week. We need the Scottish Government to listen to young people and to support them to attain their ambitions for themselves. Their ambitions are for the survival of our rural and island communities, because, without young people, those communities will not survive.

I move amendment S6M-11896.1, to insert at end:

“; considers that access to health services, homes and opportunities are essential to young people in rural and island areas; believes that young people who live in these areas are best placed to advise on what is needed, and urges the Scottish Government to address the issues highlighted and put in place a strategy and timeline to address them, as it is vital to halt depopulation and retain young people in rural areas.”