Election 2021: Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch tell us what they think about the key issues facing the constituency in our exclusive series, first up the shortage of housing and the issue of depopulation
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From now until the election we will ask the candidates how they will tackle some of the key issues faced by the Highlands. We start with Scottish Labour's John Erskine. Under new leader Anas Sarwar, Labour in Scotland is plotting a major recovery plan for NHS Scotland and a jobs package valued at £1.2 billion, it has also announced its plans for a Green recovery as it looks to regain some of the ground lost in recent years.
The issue of housing and keeping Highlanders in the region has been a problem going back generations but it is now beginning to reach crisis point.
Thousands of people are on Highland Council waiting lists to get social housing and the recent rash of developments have yet to be made available.
The local authority is currently consulting on sites to be incorporated into their masterplan – called the Inner Moray Firth Local Development Plan.
According to the National Records of Scotland, many areas like Caithness will see a steep decline in population of more than nine per cent but other areas will grow.
Mid Ross is set to rise by 4.6 per cent, Badenoch and Strathspey by 3.6 per cent and Skye and Lochalsh will see a rise of just under one per cent.
But there will be population decline in Ross and Cromarty West as it drops 2.4 and Lochaber by -2.8.
Coupled with ever greater demand for housing in the area that could yet force prices up with local developers like Tulloch Homes reporting a 12 per cent rise in interest for homes in the north.
Mr Erskine was asked what he sees as the solution to the housing shortage that is driving many Highlanders away from their home towns and villages and sparking a steep decline in population.
He said: "Housing is a key election issue in the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency for me and for Scottish Labour candidates in every party of the Highlands and Islands.
"The SNP have allowed a housing crisis to develop over the past decade which has resulted in nearly 16,000 people on housing waiting lists in the region.
"Around a third of homes locally are also living in fuel poverty and when winter hits, too many people often need to make the choice between heating their homes or eating properly, a scandal in modern Scotland.
"This lack of decent, warm and affordable housing is compounded further in places like Skye, where the purchase of second homes and the rise in profiteering short term lets, which the SNP have also failed to reform or regulate effectively, is pricing young people and families out of the area.
"That is why I believe we can’t go back to the old arguments, and the next Scottish Parliament has to focus on a Covid-19 Recovery Plan for the Highlands and Islands and part of that must include the next Scottish Government committing to ending the housing crisis and fuel poverty.
"I want the next Scottish Government to commit to building thousands of zero-carbon social homes in the Highlands and Islands over the next ten years, with parity of grant funding between councils, co-operatives and housing associations.
"We can’t rely on the SNP to focus on housing and a covid recovery plan when they have already prioritised a second referendum and we can’t expect Boris Johnson’s Tories to deliver a recover that works for us all.
"Only by using both votes for Scottish Labour can ensure we deliver a Parliament that focuses on what our families and communities need and to deliver affordable, warm and good homes for everyone."
Tomorrow read the SNP's Kate Forbes' take on what should be done about the twin problems of housing and depopulation.
