11th November 2026
Highland Council is facing continuing financial pressures, with difficult decisions about services, staffing, facilities and future investment. Yet one organisation delivering a substantial range of council services appears to have found a way of expanding its reach while reducing its reliance on council funding.
High Life Highland, the charitable organisation established by Highland Council in 2011 to manage a wide range of leisure, cultural and community services, has produced some impressive figures in its latest annual report.
The results raise an interesting question for the council: could other public services learn something from the way High Life Highland operates?
From 2.3 million visits to more than 9 million engagements
Perhaps the most striking achievement is the growth in public engagement.
When High Life Highland was established in 2011/12, it recorded approximately 2.3 million customer visits across its services. By 2025/26 that figure had grown to 9.2 million customer engagements.
The latest total comprises approximately 5.39 million visits in person and 3.91 million digital engagements.
Libraries alone recorded more than 1.9 million physical visits, while leisure facilities attracted almost 1.9 million. Community venues, countryside services, museums, music development and sporting activities also contributed to the overall figures.
These are not just leisure facilities. They provide opportunities for education, social contact, physical activity, cultural participation and community involvement.
£43.2 million saved for Highland Council
The financial figures are equally interesting.
High Life Highland reports that it has enabled savings of £43.27 million for Highland Council over the 14 years since its establishment.
When the organisation began operating, 79% of its funding came from the council. By 2025/26 that proportion had fallen to 48%.
This has been achieved through a combination of increased income, commercial activities, efficiencies and the development of additional services.
The organisation has also taken responsibility for 43 additional buildings and services since 2011, responding to requests from the council.
There is another financial benefit. Its status as an Arm's Length External Organisation (ALEO) provides the council with approximately £2.5 million annually in non-domestic rates relief.
This is a substantial contribution at a time when every million pounds matters to a council struggling to balance its books.
An organisation generating its own income
High Life Highland is not entirely dependent on its council contract.
Its 2025/26 accounts show total group income of £42.2 million, compared with £40 million in the previous year.
Income from charitable activities, principally its service delivery contract with Highland Council, increased to £36.2 million.
Revenue from trading activities rose considerably, from £2.3 million to £3.7 million.
The trading company also recorded a surplus of £714,668, which helps support the charitable organisation's wider objectives.
Memberships are another important part of the model. Average monthly High Life subscriptions increased from 17,075 in 2023/24 to 20,352 in 2025/26.
This suggests that people are continuing to make use of the facilities and are prepared to pay for access to them.
The organisation is also developing partnerships with businesses and employers, offering membership and employee wellbeing packages.
Customer satisfaction is improving
Financial performance is only part of the picture.
High Life Highland measures customer satisfaction through the Net Promoter Score, which asks people how likely they are to recommend its services.
The latest score is 79.3, compared with 70.9 in the previous year.
A score above 70 is generally regarded as exceptionally strong under the commonly used NPS scale.
This is encouraging because the organisation is not simply reporting savings. It is also reporting an improvement in how customers view the services they receive.
The latest accounts show average staff absence falling from 5.1% in 2023/24 to 3.98% in 2025/26.
There is clearly a workforce dimension to this success. The organisation employs staff across a huge geographical area, supported by volunteers and community organisations.
What about Caithness?
The report contains a number of examples of work taking place in the far north.
Nucleus, the Nuclear and Caithness Archives at Wick Airport, continues to preserve and make accessible the area's industrial and social history.
The North Coast Visitor Centre has benefited from heritage work, including the recovery and restoration of a Pictish stone.
There are also examples of local sporting achievement. Noss Primary School in Wick received sportscotland's Gold School Sport Award for 2025-2027, recognising its commitment to putting sport at the centre of school life.
More than 150 Caithness pupils participated in football and netball events organised through the Active Schools programme.
The wider sports programme also involves more than 1,200 volunteers across Highland.
A particularly interesting development is the creation of 12 Area Sport Club Networks, including one covering Caithness and North Sutherland. These are intended to strengthen links between local clubs and encourage greater participation.
The Get Active Scotland funding programme has also distributed more than £331,000 to 85 clubs and community groups across Highland.
For rural communities, where transport, distance and access to facilities can make participation difficult, this sort of support can be particularly important.
There are financial warnings too
It would be wrong, however, to suggest that everything is straightforward.
High Life Highland recorded an operating surplus of £1.59 million before actuarial pension movements in 2025/26, compared with £870,000 the previous year.
However, its overall reserves fell by approximately £319,000 to £1.73 million.
More importantly, unrestricted reserves available for general use, after designated funds are excluded, stood at just £760,278.
That represents 2.1% of its budgeted turnover, below the organisation's own longer-term target of 3%.
The directors say reserves were deliberately used to support operations and service delivery.
There is also a warning about the condition of buildings and facilities. The organisation identifies insufficient investment and reduced maintenance budgets as its biggest current risk.
This could eventually affect the customer experience and restrict its ability to attract more people.
It is a reminder that making savings today does not necessarily mean avoiding costs tomorrow. Buildings still require maintenance, equipment needs replacing and facilities need investment.
Could Highland Council learn from this model?
This is perhaps the most interesting question arising from the report.
High Life Highland was established with two objectives: to deliver services on behalf of Highland Council and to find ways of protecting and improving those services while generating savings.
Fourteen years later, it is reporting increased participation, greater income, additional responsibilities and substantial cumulative savings for the council.
That does not mean every council service could or should be transferred to an arm's-length organisation. Different services have different responsibilities, funding arrangements and risks.
Nor should the £43.2 million in reported savings be treated as money available to spend again. It represents savings achieved over a period, not an annual saving.
Nevertheless, the experience deserves attention as Highland Council considers how it will organise and deliver services in the years ahead.
The important point is that financial savings do not always have to mean fewer services, shorter opening hours or fewer opportunities for local communities.
Sometimes a different operating model, with greater freedom to develop income and work with partners, can produce different results.
High Life Highland is not without financial challenges, particularly regarding reserves and investment in buildings. But its latest report provides substantial evidence that it has expanded public engagement while reducing the proportion of its income coming from the council.
For a local authority facing difficult financial choices, that is surely worth examining carefully.
The challenge now is to ensure that the organisation can maintain this progress without allowing the condition of its buildings and facilities to deteriorate through a lack of investment.
Read the full report at Item 11 -
https://www.highland.gov.uk/meetings/meeting/5435/education-committee