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A new session - for the Strathspey & Badenoch Herald

THE NEW House of Commons session starts next week with the Queen's speech. Having spent most of the last few month talking to local people, business and organisations, there are a number of key issues that I will pursuing with my Highland colleagues John Thurso and Charles Kennedy in Westminster now.

The lack of housing that local people can afford to live in is a problem that is not going away, and in some respects is actually getting worse.

According to some excellent research by the Highland Council, our region had the fastest rising house prices in Scotland over the last two years.

Combined with the fact that wages in the Highlands are lower than elsewhere, and you have a dangerous cocktail of people who simply can't afford to get on the housing ladder – and often can't afford rents either – and those who have over-stretched themselves financially to afford inflated prices.

With higher interests, people stretched with other debts and banks squeezing credit, it is little surprise that one local financial adviser told me that he had seen a rise in recent weeks in the number of people approaching him to talk about home repossessions.

Gordon Brown is responsible for the debt crisis, having failed to rein in irresponsible lending for the last 10 years – but it is people who are stretched financially who will pay the price.

Additional investment is desperately needed in affordable housing to rent and buy. The Westminster government could help by allowing Highland Council to write off its housing debt and spend some of the money saved on new homes. That is a case that the Highlands' team of MPs will be making to the Treasury.

Post offices are a lifeline

THE FUTURE of the Post Office network in the Highlands will be determined over the next six months.

Post Office staff are starting their assessment of which outlets will have to close, following the Government's instruction to close 2,500 across the country.

We need to continue to fight strongly to protect those communities that need and want to retain their Post Office service. The government, local and national, needs to do much more to encourage people to take up the benefits to which they are entitled.

The UK Government recently withdrew funding for two posts in Highland to help tackle this problem, and I will be pressing for such help to be renewed. I hope the council will invest more of its resources in this area too.

A9 action must not slip away

IT WAS GOOD to see the SNP back at Aviemore for their conference this weekend.

During his speech, Alex Salmond renewed his commitment to cutting rail journey times on the Perth to Inverness line, and that will be welcomed by all, so long as it is done – as it certainly can be – without simply by-passing smaller stations.

More concerning was his announcement of further upgrading work for the M8 between Edinburgh and Glasgow. That is all well and good, but the SNP also made major commitments to prioritising work on the key trunk roads serving the Highlands in the recent elections – and specifically to dualling the A9.

If there is to be any constraint on funding in the years ahead, the promises that have already been made to people in the strath must come before new spending commitments in the Central Belt.

Posted on: 31/10/2007