by Colin Marr, CEO, Inverness Chamber of Commerce
In July we had a general election in the UK and voted in our first new government in 14 years. The Labour government won a landslide victory and amid the promises of “stopping the chaos” was also a commitment to growth.
And for our business members at the Inverness Chamber of Commerce that commitment is really important. But its not just important for business – its important for the whole country. Business growth means that more companies pay more taxes and employ more people – who in turn also pay tax. And that matters for everyone as these taxes then pay for our public services.
In the words of Shevaun Haviland, Director General of British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), “If businesses succeed, our communities prosper, the economy grows, and the wealth needed to support our public services is created.”
But at the end of July we got the first major statement from Rachel Reeves, our new chancellor. The statement was called Fixing the Foundations and follows a treasury audit of Britain’s finances.
According to Ms Reeves the countries finances are not in a good shape and there is less money than the new government had been led to believe. That means there will be a tightening of public spending and some inevitable spending cuts ahead.
Sound public finances are an important factor in economic growth but some of the planned growth was going to come from infrastructure spend. Public spending on infrastructure projects is a recognised way of driving economic growth. Its often argued that the reason that the United States came out of the 2008 financial crash so much quicker than the UK was because of heavy investment in public infrastructure. At this stage we don’t know where the public spending cuts are going to come but there will be a number of businesses who will be concerned if too many of them end up affecting planned infrastructure projects. In the Highlands we know that our road and rail network are not up to standard – we have all been calling for years to see improvements to the A9 and A96 as well as the train line to the central belt. While the spending on these projects will come from the Scottish Government a cut, or rise, in infrastructure spending at Westminster has a knock-on effect in Scotland.
On the same day that the chancellor was making her statement at Westminster there was a call from Scottish Chambers of Commerce (SCC) for the Government to look at the skills shortage that is affecting Scotland, and to consider a separate strategy for skills and migration north of the border. That labour and skills shortage is particularly acute in the Highlands. The Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport, and the work from SSE on renewing the electricity grid, will create over 10,000 new jobs, and it is essential for our area that we can attract, or train, people to fill them.
Its an important issue and one that we need to tackle from every angle we can. That means persuading more of our young people to stay by offering them great jobs and great training, it might mean persuading some retired people back into the workforce with interesting jobs, and it has to mean attracting workers from the rest of the UK to the Highlands. But it will also mean a sensible migration policy that allows skilled people from other countries to come and work here, and which is not subject to arbitrary limits.
Our future is being planned right now. If we want our beautiful region to remain vibrant and competitive, we have to fight for the promised growth projects in the Highlands to happen and we need to be able to help deliver these with a skilled workforce.
Together with the wider BCC and SCC networks, we’re committed to championing these policy areas, which will help our business community to grow and foster an economy that delivers for all our communities.