A stronger ecomony is no false construct
Rural Scotland's housing shortage remains a stumbling block to stimulating local economies with new workers – but some fish farming firms are now taking matters into their own hands, reveals
SCOTLAND’S rural landscape is one of the country’s greatest assets. Varied, unique and beautiful, it offers aspirational lifestyles and draws tourists like a magnet. But its very popularity is also the root of some deep-seated problems.
Arguably the most serious of these is the lack of suitable rural housing provision, particularly in the Highlands and Islands. A nearinsatiable demand means that stock is in short supply and properties that do go on the market tend to get snapped up at high prices.
This shortage causes numerous problems: it halts mobility, creates friction, stifles the economy and impedes employment.
Businesses may be looking for workers, and the desirability of the area means that people from outside the region are willing to apply for jobs. But if they cannot find or afford anywhere to live, then they simply can’t take up employment offers.
One radical but workable solution is for companies in the Highlands and Islands to build properties themselves. The most proactive sector doing this is aquaculture, with salmon farms now constructing houses not just for their own workers, but for the local community too.
One of the companies doing this is the seafood giant Mowi, which has 1500 employees in Scotland. Its farms help to sustain fragile island communities including Muck,
Rum and
Colonsay by putting in investment in a variety of ways, including housing provision.
The former MSP and Scottish Government minister Tavish Scott is Chief Executive of the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation. “The lack of housing in rural Scotland is acute, and in the more far-flung areas where our operations tend to take place, it’s even more pronounced”, he says.
Why is this? It is, he explains, down to a combination of factors. “There isn’t enough local authority or housing association provision. On top of that, you have a ridiculously buoyant market. People not just from leafy Surrey, but also from leafy Edinburgh or Glasgow, like having a house in the West Highlands. This isn’t a new problem, but it’s an ongoing one. The market is being artificially inflated by the pressure created by money flowing out of the urban areas of the UK.”
This situation has forced the salmon industry to create its own solutions. “It’s about us striking partnerships with housing associations, local authorities and local community trusts.
“The old ways of doing things just haven’t worked. Our member companies are now looking at where they can build houses.”
Mr Scott points out that the average salary in the Scottish salmon farming sector is now £34,000. “So it’s good money in rural isolated Scotland. Even in Shetland, outside the oil industry, there’s nothing that pays that.
“That means people can afford to pay their mortgages. The fundamental issue is availability of land – ownership issues are challenging – and the services that need to go into putting a house in the right place.”
It might seem incongruous for local businesses to have to effectively build their own houses, but he argues that given the circumstances they have little alternative.
“Our members need people to come and work for them. Say you’re a marine biologist and you’ve just been taken on by Mowi.
“It’s a great job, but you come up and you find there isn’t anywhere to stay.
“If we wait for the public sector to come up with a solution – well it’s just not going to happen. Even if it does, it’ll be long after that marine biologist has gone to work somewhere else. The jobs market and the availability of housing are clashing at the moment.”
The economics of housebuilding dictate that it makes more commercial sense to build 50 houses outside Inverness than one or two on the west coast, he adds. “That’s why we have been working with local community trusts that share the objective of having social rented housing in the right places.”
Why, though, does the industry’s commitment to this go beyond providing housing for their own workers into doing so for the wider local area and economy? “It’s because we recognise as a sector that we play a big role in local coastal communities and we’re a big employer there.
“We depend on those communities and we need their support. So we want to put something back. We can do that with new playgrounds or strips for the local shinty team and they are good things, but housing is practical and needed.
“I think Mowi has shown exemplary leadership in this, but all our companies are now exploring how they can provide key worker housing at the same time as putting something back into the local community.”
In terms of the broader picture, things may get worse before they get better. Even the remotest parts of the Highlands now have high speed broadband, making them highly attractive to homeworkers who don’t need to visit an office regularly.
The Covid-19 pandemic is driving a rethink on how people work, meaning it is even more likely that people will move to internet-enabled rural areas, so ramping up the pressure on housing markets even further.
Frazer Coupland, who is Chief Executive of Lochaber Chamber of Commerce, does not mince his words. The housing situation, he says, is “more than pretty grim – it’s awful”.
He gives an example: “Within a couple of hundred metres of where I live, an ex-council house went on the market for £187,000 and sold within 25 minutes for £235,000.
The problem is now so acute, he says, that even the current building of 400 houses in Fort William will hardly make a dent in it. “There’s not the housing supply, or the planning for the supply.
“A lot of properties have been bought for short-term holiday lets because that brings in good money and it’s a way for people in rural areas to supplement their income.”
“Our own organisation works extremely hard on attracting talent to the area. “But we keep getting caught. People say they would love to come here, but they can’t afford a house. It’s having a real economic impact.
“I do think, though, that the salmon industry is at the leading edge of tackling this.
“We welcome their innovation and investment in housing. We’ve been working with the industry to portray the positive aspects of aquaculture and this is one of them.”
“The old ways of doing things just haven’t worked. Our member companies are now looking at where they can build houses