Redundancies raise questions over ‘anomaly’

The owner of rural business in Ardtornish has said he is ‘devastated’ to have had to make several staff redundant as a direct result of the steep rise in non-domestic rates paid on its hydro schemes.

A damaging hike in the rates for small-scale renewable energy projects has resulted in dramatic increases in non-domestic rates for hydro producers such as Ardtornish, which is being hit with more than £500,000 of charges in one year.

On Monday this week the company, which operates five small hydro plants at the southern tip of the Morvern peninsula, announced that it had been forced to cut four jobs from its 20-strong workforce.

Managing director of Ardtornish Hugh Raven said: ‘It’s with a really heavy heart that we’ve had to make these posts redundant.

‘We’re devastated to lose valuable staff, some of them long-standing members of this community, who have contributed so much to Ardtornish – and to see high quality jobs stripped out of the Highlands as a result of a ridiculous but solvable anomaly.

‘The system has been designed without taking the interests of green energy producers like us into consideration. If it wasn’t for this punishing rates regime we would be looking to expand our operations in Ardtornish, not contract them.

‘This horrible situation has cost us a fifth of our employees at a really challenging economic time for the country. We’re working closely with the Scottish Government to ensure these pressures can be reduced in future years.’

The British Hydropower Association has also called on the Scottish Government to take ‘bold and decisive action’ to ‘safeguard the sector’.

Simon Hamlyn, CEO of the association added: ‘Cases such as these are of grave concern to the BHA.

Hugh Raven said he was ‘devastated’ to have had to make several staff redundant as a direct result of the steep rise in non-domestic rates.

‘The Scottish Government is fully aware that this flaw in the business rates relief scheme leaves firms such as Ardtornish with no choice but to make job cuts. In the year of COP26, and with ambitious climate targets to achieve, hydro generators must be helped not hindered.

‘The BHA encourages government ministers to take bold and decisive action as a priority matter to safeguard the sector and save many of the high quality jobs such as these.’

In January Ardtornish had warned that it faced a financial crisis after the failure of efforts to have a business rates bill of more than £500,000 for hydro schemes on the land cut.

The estate was one of a handful of small hydro scheme operators to fall outwith criteria to qualify for a 10-year rates relief extension announced by the Scottish Government at the end of January.