EANN SINCLAIR: New opportunities must be made to benefit the area post-Dounreay
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Eann Sinclair looks to the future after changes to decommissioning contracts at the former nuclear power site – and finds similar challenges remain
Between the years 2008 and 2019 it was my privilege to be the programme manager for the Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership (CNSRP).
This was the multi-agency grouping which brought together the public, private and third sectors to address the challenges posed to the north’s economy by the decommissioning and eventual closure of Dounreay.
The partnership’s birth came against often fractious discussion between key agencies, with the creation of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in 2005 having brought a new dimension to the debate and the increased likelihood of a much earlier end to decommissioning.
At the time of the partnership’s creation, and for the succeeding years, the overwhelming message to stakeholders and the wider public was that CNSRP’s partners were working together to move the area economy away from its dependence on nuclear decommissioning. Independent studies in 2011 and 2016 highlighted that CNSRP had made a difference to the area’s prospects, having helped bring about a culture change as well as supporting diversification in local businesses.
But this progress has in itself been against a challenging backdrop of wider economic shocks, the most recent of which (the UK leaving the EU, Covid, Ukraine) continue to be felt.
There is no doubt that our economy, which was proving to be agile in identifying and delivering on diversification, is struggling to recover and to refocus on opportunities. This also continues to include opportunities in the nuclear sector, where the timelines for reaching the “interim end state” at Dounreay (the measure of when decommissioning is largely complete) are changing.
The competition to decommission the Dounreay site was put out to open competition by the NDA, with the contract to take the site to completion won in 2012 by a private sector consortium. However, several contracts to run UK decommissioning programmes suffered problems, leading to the Dounreay contract being terminated and the responsibility for decommissioning the site returning to the public sector in 2021.
As the site continues to recover from the effects of Covid it has become clear that the timescale for decommissioning Dounreay will be significantly longer than previously expected, and this is likely to have several implications for the area's economy.
The first and most welcome of those is an extended period of time where the direct Dounreay workforce remains engaged in the job of decommissioning the site, with all the benefits that has in terms of money remaining in the local economy. At a time of wider uncertainty in the UK economy, this will provide added security for people.
However, another effect is to make direct employment at Dounreay more attractive to those already in employment elsewhere in the area. Like many other areas of the economy, Dounreay has been trying to recruit new labour, and we have seen an inevitable drift of workers towards often very well-paid jobs. This in turn causes problems for local employers attempting to retain staff.
So what does this mean for the CNSRP approach to our future economy?
In many ways the challenge has not changed. The prospect of a “cliff-edge” of employment losses which led to the creation of the CNSRP might have receded, but the opportunities around non-decommissioning work in offshore wind and space are very real, and more than ever they require a coordinated effort to ensure that they will bring benefit to this area.
The aim of fostering a diverse, healthy area economy has therefore not changed. The efforts of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Highland Council, Skills Development Scotland and Caithness Chamber of Commerce will continue to be boosted by the presence of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority as CNSRP reflects on this changed and changing economic environment.
The partnership, under the independent chair of Simon Middlemas, has embarked on a process of re-positioning itself, and I am looking forward to hearing more from the CNSRP team over the coming months as some of its previous interventions pay off and its current opportunities are brought to reality.
- Eann Sinclair is area manager, Caithness and Sutherland at Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
