THE West Highland housing shortage was thrown into stark relief again today by the owner of The Seaforth restaurant, bar, and fish-and-chip shop on the North Coast 500 route in Ullapool.

J&R Group, the corporate vehicle of hoteliers Jon Erasmus and Richard Drummond, flagged a “crippling housing shortage” in the region as it highlighted its purchase of a nearby motel to provide low-rent accommodation for staff.

It declared that, when the Morefield Motel came on the market, it had taken the decision to bid “as it would fill an accommodation gap currently unable to be met by local or national authorities”.

The comment about the authorities being “unable” to meet the accommodation gap was striking.

New First Minister Humza Yousaf has flagged affordable housing as a priority for the Scottish Government. He has unveiled a consultation on proposals which would enable local authorities to hike council tax on second homes. These proposals have stoked controversy in the tourism sector. What seems clear is that major steps of some sort are needed to address the housing shortage, which appears to be particularly acute in remote and rural areas.

Veteran hotelier Paddy Crerar has also highlighted the scale of the problems caused by severe housing shortages in remote and rural areas.

These shortages are obviously a huge problem for so many people in the affected communities.

And the extent to which the lack of housing is also hampering the ability of many hospitality businesses to operate normally is becoming increasingly evident, even though it has been very apparent for some time now.

The owner of The Seaforth noted the restaurant, bar, and fish-and-chip shop had been “facing the reality of not being able to fully open” because of “the acute lack of affordable homes in the area”. Thankfully, the motel purchase has enabled it to operate as normal. It is an innovative, and commendable move. However, many other hospitality businesses in Scotland’s remote and rural areas face similar problems in terms of their employees or potential new recruits being unable to find housing.

This housing shortage is another major strain for hospitality businesses that are being hampered severely in their efforts to find staff by the Conservatives’ hard Brexit, which has fuelled enormously the UK’s skills and labour shortage crisis by bringing to an end free movement of people between the UK and European Economic Area countries.

 

READ MORE: Famous Highland restaurant buys motel to avoid danger of not being able to open fully