25th June 2026
More than £50m of additional public investment was attracted to the Highlands and Islands last year by the region’s development agency.
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) almost doubled its £53m opening budget from the start of financial year 2025/26, delivering an annual spend of £105m to create hundreds of jobs and grow the regional economy.
Almost 70% (£36m) of the extra funding, came from successful bids to the Scottish Government’s Offshore Wind Investment Programme, through which HIE supported major strategic projects at Arnish in Lewis, Ardersier in the Inner Moray Firth, Kishorn in Wester Ross and Lerwick in Shetland.
Another significant source was the £4.4m Islands Business Resilience Fund that HIE secured and administered on the government’s behalf to help strengthen island firms in sectors that had been hardest hit by disruption to west coast ferry services in recent years.
The agency also gained funding to run a range of programmes targeting specific initiatives such as supporting women in business and encouraging more young people to consider entrepreneurship.
HIE’s forecast outturn figures covering the 12 months from April 2025 to March 2026 will be reviewed by Audit Scotland for inclusion in the agency’s annual report and accounts, which are due to be laid in the Scottish Parliament by the end of October.
They show that the agency met or exceeded 21 of its 24 annual performance targets. Among these were supporting 642 jobs, including 260 green jobs and 348 in some of the region’s most disadvantaged locations.
A total of 347 organisations were supported to innovate, while HIE clients developed 163 new products, processes or services. HIE also enabled 277 community projects to progress.
Over 110 organisations engaged in just transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions, while 99 were helped to develop or implement a net zero action plan.
Several community-led housing initiatives were supported during the year, including developments in Glengarry, Spean Bridge, Dunvegan and Applecross.
Investments in Gaelic included a pilot entrepreneurship programme, Cruthachadh Cothroman, which was delivered with Bòrd na Gàidhlig and the Scottish Government, and the launch of a major research project, Ar Cànan Ar Cultar Ar Beartas (Our language, Our Culture, Our Prosperity) that will report in 2026.
HIE helped 54 organisations increase productivity, a figure that fell slightly short of its target of 60. Another goal, to deliver capital asset investment in supported community organisations, achieved 75% of its £20m target (£15.2m).
Although innovation investment in supported organisation comfortably exceeded the £30m goal, achieving £51.7m, delayed implementation of a new HIE data system meant that only eight organisations were able to be recorded as having increased innovation maturity against a target of 55.
Angus Campbell, chair of HIE, said: “These results show another year of strong performance by Highlands and Islands Enterprise and represent our highest level of investment in the region since 2007/08.
“It’s great that the agency was able to attract such substantial sums of additional investment and that this funding could be used to support many small businesses and entrepreneurs as well as multi-million pound investments.
“I’m particularly pleased that we’ve kept a strong focus on helping to drive innovation in well-established sectors such as tourism and food and drink, as well as maintaining our commitment to rural and island communities.”
Stuart Black, chief executive of HIE, said: "The offshore wind sector has the potential to generate thousands of new Scottish jobs and is very much centred on the huge opportunities that exist in the Highlands and Islands.
“Research published last year revealed a pipeline of over 250 regional transformational opportunities across our region – including projects focused on renewable energy, life sciences, critical infrastructure and space – that has a potential value of up to £100 billion.
“We’re very conscious of the need to seize this moment to help grow Scotland’s economy and ensure that supply chain companies and communities across the Highlands and Islands can share in the benefits.”
Business and Fair Work Minister Tom Arthur said:
“Economic growth is key to delivering a productive, dynamic and prosperous Scotland and these results show the capabilities and opportunities being delivered right across the region thanks to the help, expertise and targeted intervention from Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
“The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with HIE and our other public and private sector partners to continue supporting stronger businesses with the opportunity to grow, in turn supporting and creating further good jobs and wages.”
See the numbers at
https://www.hie.co.uk/news-and-blogs/news/2026/june/25/annual-investment-shows-size-of-economic-opportunity-in-the-highlands-and-islands/