PLANS to provide as many as 100 households with up to £50,000 to move to or remain in Scotland's islands have been put out to consultation.
The Scottish Government is seeking views on its Islands Bond proposal, which aims to combat depopulation.
It said the bonds would support young people and families to buy, build or renovate homes, start businesses and "otherwise make their lives for the long-term in island communities".
The consultation will run for 12 weeks, closing on October 25.
It follows the publication of the National Islands Plan in 2019, which sets out a series of objectives for improving outcomes for island communities across Scotland.
Islands Secretary Mairi Gougeon said: “The Islands Bond will help us to deliver on some of the commitments from the National Islands Plan.
"It’s a way for us to address some of the key financial barriers for people who want to live on our islands.
“Each of our islands are unique and this consultation will help us understand some of the population challenges across our islands and make sure that we can properly address them.
"It will also provide information to enable us to set up a relocation support or advisory service and make the move for people as smooth as possible.
“I’d encourage people across Scotland, especially those on our islands, to provide a response to this consultation and make sure their voices are heard to help shape the bond.
“As well as delivering this consultation, we’ll continue to engage with local authorities, island communities and other relevant stakeholders as we develop the bond.”
The £5 million policy will see the value of each individual ‘award' set at up to £50,000.
The consultation notes: "The Islands Bond will aim to address the issue of depopulation through delivering a direct intervention responding to some of the key financial barriers to remaining in, or moving to, the islands.
"This intervention will involve providing up to £50,000 for up to 100 households across the lifetime of the parliament.
"The bond will be an agreement to provide financial assistance based on set criteria to support island residents to remain in their community, or to encourage households outwith the islands to move there."
It adds: "Recognising the potential tensions arising from those outwith the islands moving into island communities, we will also look to develop, in parallel to the bond mechanism, options for a relocation support or advisory service.
"This could help to provide a ‘soft landing’ for those looking to move to island communities.
"Providing support in the form of capital funding through an Islands Bond will stimulate local island economies and address financial barriers to accessing land, housing and/or business space that will facilitate both population retention and growth in island communities.
"In particular, the bond could be expected to create sustainable and inclusive growth in the island communities recipients of the bond move to or remain in, and, through careful development of its criteria, would also reduce inequalities and give equal importance to economic, environmental and social progress."
Identifying which island communities to target will form part of the consultation process, while the value of individual bonds "may require to be needs based".
Depopulation has been highlighted by islanders as a top priority.
It comes amid fears for the future of Gaelic, with campaigners pointing to the wider social and economic pressures facing the language.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel