Highlands and Islands
Posted: Tue May 18, 2021 5:04 pm
For events pertaining to the Highlands and Islands region
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Highlands and Islands
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Re: Highlands and Islands
Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2021 9:11 pm
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Re: Highlands and Islands
Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2021 10:43 pm
No Community Left Behind: Lifting up rural areas
Donald Cameron, MSP for the Highlands and Islands and Shadow Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy, delivered a speech in Moray focusing on rural affairs and connectivity.
Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for coming out today. After thirteen years of divisive SNP rule at Holyrood, it is now becoming ever more apparent that there is a growing divide between two different Scotlands. Whilst the SNP have spent the little free time that they have between independence marches and seperatist agitating trying to solve self-inflicted problems in the central belt and Scotland’s biggest cities, the beating rural heart of Scotland has been suffering from the effect of underinvestment and disinterest, leaving our infrastructure and communities miles behind the rest of the country. Unlike the SNP, the Conservatives have a plan for all of Scotland, and one that will help lift up and empower rural areas to reach their full potential.
This plan begins with investment in our failing infrastructure. Railway lines that were axed under the Beeching cuts of the 60s will be reviewed for re-opening as part of a targeted, focused plan to help reconnect communities who have lost their access to rail travel. We’ll invest further in road building, upgrading key roads such as the A96 to make travel from Inverness to Aberdeen quicker and more effective. But investing in infrastructure does not just mean investing in rail and road works. It also means levelling up connectivity, allowing homes and business the access they desperately need to digital infrastructure: one of the most vital pillars holding up our economy. The SNP’s rollout of fibre broadband in rural Scotland has been an unprecedented disaster, causing uncertainty and dismay for countless rural businesses and communities. With help and funding from the UK government, we will make full fibre broadband a reality by 2027, and legally mandate that every new build home must come with fibre broadband as standard, so that no community will be cut out of Scotland’s digital network.
And on the subject of house building, the Conservatives will deliver the investment needed to ensure that rural Scotland is not left behind when it comes to housing either. The Conservatives called for the creation of the Rural Housing Fund that the government has invested millions into, but incompetence and delay has led to this money being wasted. Despite tens of millions of pounds of funding, only a few dozen houses have actually been built. Yet another eye watering waste of taxpayers money is totally unacceptable, and highlights exactly why we need the SNP out. The Conservatives will invest an additional £50 million in the fund, and as Rural Economy Secretary I will ensure that it is managed properly and that this money is not wasted as it has been so far. As well as housebuilding, the Rural Housing Fund also provides funds for renovations, but despite that the number of derelict and empty properties in Scotland remains incredibly high. Tens of thousands of buildings in Scotland lie abandoned, eyesores bringing down respectable areas and taking up room that could be used to help grow the economy: with the worst affected areas being in rural communities. We will legislate to create compulsory selling orders, allowing councils to take over long abandoned properties in order to redevelop them for the benefit of the community.
Finally, we will empower Scotland’s farmers through a bold new set of proposals to keep those who keep our country running well supported. Farming is the lifeblood of rural economies, and consequently it requires it’s own bespoke industrial strategy to keep it as effective and competitive as any other industry. And we will craft this strategy and our wider policy hand in hand with farmers, with a public consultation being the foundation for a new, bold, agriculture policy. This strategy will involve investment into the cutting edge of new agricultural technology, with an extra £10 million a year invested towards farming R&D. But investment alone will not keep Scotland’s farming sector robust and growing. We must also ensure that farming is accessible, and that the government’s economic strategy is tied to helping the sector grow as much as possible. We will bring back programmes designed to support younger and new farmers as they enter the sector that were cut by the SNP, to ensure that farming has a clear way forward far into the future. And, we will constantly champion and promote Scottish food and produce whenever we can, be that by supporting producers to export abroad or by making sure that our schools and public institutions serve the finest Scottish food.
Only a vote for the Conservatives on Thursday can make this possible, and only Ruth Davidson as First Minister will ensure that no community is left behind.
Donald Cameron, MSP for the Highlands and Islands and Shadow Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy, delivered a speech in Moray focusing on rural affairs and connectivity.
Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for coming out today. After thirteen years of divisive SNP rule at Holyrood, it is now becoming ever more apparent that there is a growing divide between two different Scotlands. Whilst the SNP have spent the little free time that they have between independence marches and seperatist agitating trying to solve self-inflicted problems in the central belt and Scotland’s biggest cities, the beating rural heart of Scotland has been suffering from the effect of underinvestment and disinterest, leaving our infrastructure and communities miles behind the rest of the country. Unlike the SNP, the Conservatives have a plan for all of Scotland, and one that will help lift up and empower rural areas to reach their full potential.
This plan begins with investment in our failing infrastructure. Railway lines that were axed under the Beeching cuts of the 60s will be reviewed for re-opening as part of a targeted, focused plan to help reconnect communities who have lost their access to rail travel. We’ll invest further in road building, upgrading key roads such as the A96 to make travel from Inverness to Aberdeen quicker and more effective. But investing in infrastructure does not just mean investing in rail and road works. It also means levelling up connectivity, allowing homes and business the access they desperately need to digital infrastructure: one of the most vital pillars holding up our economy. The SNP’s rollout of fibre broadband in rural Scotland has been an unprecedented disaster, causing uncertainty and dismay for countless rural businesses and communities. With help and funding from the UK government, we will make full fibre broadband a reality by 2027, and legally mandate that every new build home must come with fibre broadband as standard, so that no community will be cut out of Scotland’s digital network.
And on the subject of house building, the Conservatives will deliver the investment needed to ensure that rural Scotland is not left behind when it comes to housing either. The Conservatives called for the creation of the Rural Housing Fund that the government has invested millions into, but incompetence and delay has led to this money being wasted. Despite tens of millions of pounds of funding, only a few dozen houses have actually been built. Yet another eye watering waste of taxpayers money is totally unacceptable, and highlights exactly why we need the SNP out. The Conservatives will invest an additional £50 million in the fund, and as Rural Economy Secretary I will ensure that it is managed properly and that this money is not wasted as it has been so far. As well as housebuilding, the Rural Housing Fund also provides funds for renovations, but despite that the number of derelict and empty properties in Scotland remains incredibly high. Tens of thousands of buildings in Scotland lie abandoned, eyesores bringing down respectable areas and taking up room that could be used to help grow the economy: with the worst affected areas being in rural communities. We will legislate to create compulsory selling orders, allowing councils to take over long abandoned properties in order to redevelop them for the benefit of the community.
Finally, we will empower Scotland’s farmers through a bold new set of proposals to keep those who keep our country running well supported. Farming is the lifeblood of rural economies, and consequently it requires it’s own bespoke industrial strategy to keep it as effective and competitive as any other industry. And we will craft this strategy and our wider policy hand in hand with farmers, with a public consultation being the foundation for a new, bold, agriculture policy. This strategy will involve investment into the cutting edge of new agricultural technology, with an extra £10 million a year invested towards farming R&D. But investment alone will not keep Scotland’s farming sector robust and growing. We must also ensure that farming is accessible, and that the government’s economic strategy is tied to helping the sector grow as much as possible. We will bring back programmes designed to support younger and new farmers as they enter the sector that were cut by the SNP, to ensure that farming has a clear way forward far into the future. And, we will constantly champion and promote Scottish food and produce whenever we can, be that by supporting producers to export abroad or by making sure that our schools and public institutions serve the finest Scottish food.
Only a vote for the Conservatives on Thursday can make this possible, and only Ruth Davidson as First Minister will ensure that no community is left behind.