EDWARD MOUNTAIN: Caithness businesses and campaigners deserve better
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Holyrood Notebook by Edward Mountain
During the Easter Recess I was delighted to undertake my surgery tour, meeting with many residents, campaigners and businesses across the far north.
This tour offered the perfect opportunity for me to take the temperature of the Highlands and the issues that matter most to local communities.
Health care provision remains a hot topic and I was pleased to meet with the Caithness Health Action Team (CHAT) to discuss how we can work together to ensure the new first minister commits to a review of maternity care. Far north communities need Humza Yousaf to engage with this issue far better as first minister, compared to when he was health secretary.
During my tour I was also struck by the growing frustration and despair of some local businesses towards the Scottish Government.
Food and drink are especially important to the local economy across Caithness and Sutherland; however, producers have been put into an impossible position particularly when it comes to the shambolic introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).
DRS in its current form is not just unpopular, but unworkable too. The policy threatened to put many small drinks producers out of business and would have more than doubled the cost of bottled drinks to the consumer too. Potential job losses and price hikes are simply unacceptable in a cost-of-living crisis.
While the Greens wanted to press ahead with the launch of this scheme in August, the first minister announced a delay to the rollout until March next year during his programme for government.
I cautiously welcome this delay as it means consumers will avoid sky-high prices for single-use bottled drinks. However, this delay does not come without its problems for our businesses.
For example, some small retailers have already entered into expensive contracts to install reverse vending machines in their shops. Had they known sooner about the DRS delay, investments could have been paused. It’s no wonder then that the Federation of Independent Retailers are calling on the Scottish Government to provide compensation.
If DRS wasn’t enough of a problem for our drinks industry, they also had to contend with plans to introduce a ban on alcohol advertising too. The proposals threatened to close our local distillery shops and end the promotion of whisky tours.
This would have been hugely damaging. The whisky tourism sector alone brings in £84 million annually to the Scottish economy, a large proportion of which supports jobs and rural communities across the Highlands.
I called for the Scottish Government to rethink this absurd policy and I am pleased that common sense has finally prevailed.
While our distilleries and breweries are now breathing a sigh of relief, the same cannot be said for our farmers and food producers.
I am deeply disappointed that the first minister made no mention of a future agriculture policy during his programme for government speech. This is not merely an oversight – it is an insult to an industry that has been left in the dark for far too long.
Farmers need sight of a detailed agriculture policy. Without one, how does the Scottish Government expect the farming sector to enhance our food security and also deliver on ambitious climate change targets by 2030?
We may have a new first minister, but it’s the same old story – the central belt is the priority and the needs of our rural communities in the Highlands are ignored.
I will not accept more of the same and I will continue to hold this Scottish Government to account.
- Edward Mountain is a Highlands and Islands MSP for the Scottish Conservatives.
