Economy Secretary visits Highlands for progress update on Investment
1st May 2018
The £315 million Inverness and Highland City-Region Deal is already benefiting the Highlands and supporting the area's drive for economic prosperity.
Economy Secretary Keith Brown was given an update on the current investment during a visit to Inverness to meet council officials and see some of the projects benefiting under the deal. These included the Raining Stairs affordable housing project and Science Skills Academy in the Highland Capital.
Regional partners in the Highlands estimate the funding could unlock up to an additional £800m from the private sector and play a key role in securing long term productivity and economic growth as the region seeks to position itself as a centre of digital opportunity.
Economy Secretary Keith Brown said:
"Our cities and their regions are the engines of our economy and the Scottish Government is committed to working with our cities to unlock investment and boost the Inverness region's potential. City Deals are one of our economic initiatives to stimulate growth and deliver infrastructure investment that will benefit both people and business.
"It has been extremely heartening to see the results of this investment today and the positive impact it is already having across the city. I look forward to continuing working with local partners to ensure both Inverness and the wider Highland region prosper, now and in the years to come."
Margaret Davidson, Leader of Highland Council said: “The Inverness and Highland City-Region Deal is already delivering real and meaningful benefits to the Highlands, with the promise of securing a sustainable economic future for the region through this valuable investment in skills, business development and innovation, digital connectivity, transport infrastructure, housing and tourism.
“We have seen the start of important housing projects, the roll-out of free wifi, the completion of the first stage of the West Link and the development of the Newton Rooms and other exciting innovation and life science projects. We have always recognised that it is the private sector that will grow our economy and that our role is to enable and facilitate that growth and this is very much what the City-Region Deal seeks to do."
Related Businesses
Related Articles
As intimated in Highland Council's budget plan, a new senior management structure is to be implemented following approval by Council 14th March. It reconfigures the senior management team into two layers, rather than three and brings Highland Council into line with other benchmarked authorities.
Today, Morrison Construction introduced some of their local apprentices who are working on the UK Governments' Levelling Up Funded refurbishment project at the Northern Meeting Park in Inverness. All these apprentices have been recruited from the Highland area.
The by-election to elect a councillor to represent Ward 19 - Inverness South on The Highland Council has been won by Duncan Cameron McDonald - Independent who was one of the eight candidates who contested the vacancy. Voters in the ward went to the poll yesterday (Thursday 11 April) and the by-election count was held this morning in The Highland Council Headquarters in Inverness.
The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate. The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate.
Following the success of its Business Digital Grant scheme launched last year, The Highland Council is delighted to announce further funding. This is to help Highland companies access digital support alongside other business growth support.
The Highland Council is delighted to confirm a highly successful second year for Public Service Obligation (PSO) flights between Wick and Aberdeen. The period from April 2023 to March 2024 has seen a substantial increase in passenger numbers, with several months seeing over 1,000 passengers using the service, and overall the service has seen year on year growth of 25%.
Members of Highland Council, who met on Thursday 14 March 2024, approved a corporate Digital Ambition, which has been designed to deliver significant organisational change across Council services, recognising the current priorities within the organisation. The Strategy, which is embedded within the wider Council Delivery Plan, has been developed to focus attention and resources on areas of change which will deliver the greatest benefit to the Council.
The Council remains committed to supporting mentoring in our schools, including the support that is currently delivered through the MCR Pathways programme. Highland Council is currently undertaking a review of Employability Support provided by a number of different council services and how these relate to the work carried out by external partners and in our schools.
Highland Council members have considered and agreed a revised draft Highland Outcome Improvement Plan. The partnership plan has been reviewed and updated by the Community Planning Partnership.
Members at today's (14 March 2024) meeting of The Highland Council agreed the local authority's new draft Community Wealth Building Strategy. They were also asked to note that a period of public engagement on the draft will now begin, with a final strategy returning to full Council for consideration in September.