Rural Repopulation isn’t just about the people
A story in the Herald today warns that Keir Starmer’s continued attacks on immigrants may have a chilling effect on efforts to slow or reverse depopulation in rural areas of Scotland like the Highlands. The reports concerns are worth noting as migrant workers have been affected by policies like salary thresholds which have been raised above the typical wage for people in sectors like hospitality and care and this is especially true in areas like the Highlands where the average wage for these sectors themselves are substantially lower than, for example, London. English language requirements may also be seen as discriminatory in areas where other British languages like Gaelic or Scots play a substantial role in daily life and are already under threat despite recent improvements to their legal status.
These are just some of the factors that have caused depopulation of the Highlands, however, and as welcome as inwards migrations should be it alone isn’t sufficient to reverse the trend.
Rural-to-urban migration has been a massive pull factor for people even within Scotland for multiple generations now and the route to reversing that requires much more in the way of industrial strategy. Scotland’s energy transition in particular demands a decentralised approach both in the deployment of new renewable energy infrastructure (much of which is currently carried out by teams of workers being temporarily drop-shipped into an area rather than supporting local jobs) and in upgrading and retrofitting housing (which, in rural areas, often requires an intensive bespoke service).
Rural depopulation has also been exacerbated by the lack of local democratic control. It is difficult for local communities to do something which in Europe would be controlled by the local village council when in Scotland it is controlled from Inverness or Edinburgh because here, the “Local Authority” is larger than several European countries. Local “Development Councils” built on a scale similar to European municipalities would enable and encourage local investment in the area by people who would otherwise be forced to leave to go somewhere where politicians elsewhere have decided to place the investment instead.
The biggest barrier to change however is access to land and the power to control it. Patterns of land ownership in Scotland are, if anything, even more concentrated now than they were during the first Highland Clearances and so it should come as no surprise that if the local Laird (who is often now an absentee owner or even just a line in the portfolio of a hedge fund) decides that they would prefer a grouse moor or a carbon credit laundering scheme to housing, community and jobs then that is what happens. This is despite work from us and the Revive Coalition that shows that rather than grouse moors “protecting jobs”, it would be possible to create even more and better paid jobs on the same land by doing almost anything else.
This is the crux of the problem for the Scottish Government. It’s not sufficient to simply complain about the UK Government’s policies (even when, as here, complaint is warranted and the solutions, such as a devolved Scottish visa system, are both valid and workable). Depopulation of the Highlands and other areas of Scotland isn’t just about the people. It’s about land and it’s about power. The trend of people leaving won’t be reversed until and unless there are major reforms to both to enable people to live sustainably and with control over their own communities. Both land reform and local democracy are fully devolved areas and are within the Scottish Government’s power to change regardless of whether or not the UK Government listens to them on immigration.