Views
Highlands in the vanguard with innovative projects - for the Inverness Courier
LISTENING to local businesses over the last few weeks, it is clear that much still needs to be done to build the economic recovery.
There are a few positive signs in the growth figures and elsewhere, but it seems likely that the economic recovery will be choppy.
It is also clear that one of the factors that will help us in the Highlands is the innovation that local organisations and businesses demonstrate. I saw this first hand on three local visits last week.
On Thursday, I visited the Shirlie project, which I have written about in this column before. Once again the combination of excellent, highly-skilled staff and good connections with local businesses helps the project to deliver results and get people back to work that would be the envy of similar organisations further south.
There is much debate about welfare reform, and about the wisdom of the government placing so much emphasis on getting people back to work. But across its client groups - young people, people who have been unemployed for a long time, disabled people - the Shirlie project shows what can be achieved. Work is the best route out of poverty - as well as being beneficial in other ways - and we will continue to pursue welfare reforms that encourage and support people back to work.
The second stop was the Highland housing expo. This event was much maligned in advance, but I think has proved a significant success. The range of housing designs on display was fascinating, as were some of the materials used. A house clad in rubber and ivy was not what I had expected to see - but, who knows, we may see more of them in the Highlands!
What the expo demonstrated was what can be achieved in terms of environmentally-friendly, cheap to run, housing with a bit of imagination and learning from other countries. With fuel poverty a huge problem across the country, house designs that cost less than £100 a year to run are well worth pursuing. Some of the designs on display are commonplace elsewhere in Europe - it is depressing that it takes so long for good ideas to travel.
Of course, bringing innovation like the expo involves risks, but in this case it was a risk worth taking, as the interest from across the country - and indeed across the world - showed. My only quibble is that it could have stayed open longer - I suspect even more people would have wished to visit as the word got round.
Finally, on Friday I was pleased to be invited to open Fujitsu's new offices in Inverness. This is a significant investment by the company, and stems from the work it does providing technology support to Highland Council, a contract that has just been renewed. The company clearly sees the possibility of bringing more work to its excellent team in Inverness and I hope they succeed.
As well as bringing jobs to the Highlands, this contract is saving money for Highland Council. By delivering these services through an external provider, the council is able to get better value for money and benefit from the expertise and ideas that the company brings. With the pressure on public spending growing, this is exactly the sort of thinking that others will need to follow. I was surprised to learn that, despite the success of this arrangement, very few other councils in Scotland have chosen to follow suit.
What links these three examples together is that in each area, things going on here in the Highlands are at the leading edge across the country. Getting people back to work, getting better value for taxpayers money, and showing what can be achieved with really innovative thinking. With all the problems facing the country, and the need to get the country's finances in order, it is also reassuring to see that some of the answers lie in replicating good work that is going on in the Highlands.
Posted on: 31/08/2010
