Andy Burnham urged to swap city streets for Highland glens following stark major rural report: “Come from Manchester to the true North to see it for yourself” Highland MP Angus MacDonald says 

A new report from Angus MacDonald MP, the Liberal Democrat MP for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire, warns that any move by Prime Minister Andy Burnham to push power closer to local communities in Scotland must reckon with the distinct and worsening cost of living crisis facing the Highlands and Islands.

Mr MacDonald’s report, Remote Scotland: Spiralling Towards Unviability?, sets out in detail how the region faces a persistent “Highland premium.”

Among its findings are:

• One in three Highland households are living in fuel poverty.
• Families in remote areas pay around £1,000 more each year on energy than the Scottish average.
• More than one in five children across the Highland area live in relative poverty.
• The Highlands has lost 18% of its care home beds for older people since 2014 while its elderly population continues to grow rapidly.
• Post-Brexit replacement funding has fallen around 60% short of the value of previous EU support.

It comes as Mr Burnham has signalled a wider devolution agenda since taking office.

Mr MacDonald argues this is exactly the moment to make the case that any new settlement must be designed around the reality of rural life - not simply exported wholesale from city-regions.

The report renews Mr MacDonald’s call for a dedicated Holyrood Minister for the Highlands and Islands, and for a cross-departmental working group to coordinate the response to rural deprivation across housing, transport, energy, education, and social care.

The report draws on data and conversations with the major public service bodies in the Highlands, including Highland Council, NHS Highland, the University of the Highlands and Islands, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Angus MacDonald MP said:

“For too long, the Highlands and Islands have been treated as an exception to national policy, rather than a test of whether it is working. This report shows that people here face a ‘Highland premium’ at almost every stage of life - from finding childcare, to heating their homes, accessing healthcare, and finding care at the end of life.

“You cannot build a fair devolution settlement without recognising that it costs more to live here - come up from Manchester and visit the Highlands to see it for yourself. The cost of living is up to 30% higher, incomes are 10% lower, housing is more expensive, public services are less available, there is an ageing population and a dramatic drop in school rolls.

“These aren’t isolated problems. They are the consequence of years of policies that have failed to account for the realities of rural living. Unless governments begin recognising the true cost of living in remote communities, the gap between the Highlands and the rest of the country will only continue to widen.

“The Highlands cannot be an afterthought in this new conversation about power and place. Andy Burnham built his career on the idea that Westminster doesn’t understand life outside it - well, neither does a settlement designed for Manchester work for Mallaig.

“If he’s serious about the promise of starting with the life people are actually living, he has to start with the honest picture of what people here are actually paying, and going without, just to get by. That's what my report sets out.

“That’s why I’m calling on the Prime Minister to come and see this for himself. Come to the North West of Scotland. Talk to families worrying about care for their grandparents or whether the school will remain open, to people and businesses struggling with energy costs, and to communities fighting to keep essential services alive.”