Views sought on £50,000 island living incentive
A proposal to offer large financial incentives to attract people to islands threatened by depopulation has stirred up debate in Argyll.
The Scottish Government plans to create and fund an Islands Bond to encourage population retention and growth in island communities. Before going ahead with the plan, it is inviting the public to give their views.
The consultation paper aims to identify islands where population decline is becoming critical. In addition, the government says it is keen to work with young islanders to identify actions to encourage them to stay on or return to islands. It hopes also to ensure that policies aim to retain and attract Gaelic speakers to live and work in Gaelic speaking communities.
Argyll and Bute MSP Jenni Minto has urged the community to respond to the Scottish Government’s consultation on its Island Bonds policy, which proposes offering 100 bonds of up to £50,000 to young people and families to stay in or to move to islands currently threatened by depopulation.
She said: ‘One of the main priorities of the Islands Plan is to increase population and especially to encourage younger people to move to or return to islands. Providing financial help in the form of the Island Bond might be one way of achieving this. The Scottish Government is proposing to invest £5million to encourage island repopulation. In the last couple of weeks, I have visited 10 of Argyll and Bute’s 23 populated islands. A subject that has been consistently raised across them is how do we encourage young islanders to stay and how do we ensure we have good homes for them.’
The problem of jobs and housing for young people was also raised by Highlands and Islands MSP Rhoda Grant, however, she explained she thinks the £50,000 incentive could, in fact, exacerbate the situation.
She said: ‘We must ensure policies devised to halt depopulation do not have the opposite effect. I am concerned this will simply inflate house prices and attract those who do not have a realistic idea of island life, while further pushing house prices out of reach of young people. I firmly believe the way to halt depopulation is to create jobs, provide further education and build homes to provide opportunities to enable young people to stay. Currently those who live on our islands are often forced to work several jobs to make a living. Many of those are precarious and do not count towards income when being assessed for a mortgage. That is why even in our island communities we see people migrating to towns to try and secure a decent living.’
Concerns like Rhoda’s are, Jenni Minto believes, the reason why as many people from the communities affected should get involved with the consultation. She said: ‘I don’t think there is one simple solution, so we must look at all possible solutions in the context of what we hope to achieve. It is therefore important that those with the best experience and insight, those who live on or have grown up on the islands, make their voices and opinions heard in this important consultation.’
The Island Bonds consultation is available at consult.gov. scot