Highlands on the edge of biggest economic boom since oil and gas as green freeport announcement expected
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
ROSS-SHIRE and the wider Highlands is on the cusp of a potentially transformational boost tipped to be the single most significant economic development since the heyday of oil and gas.
As we went to press, Opportunity Cromarty Firth looked poised to be confirmed as one of Scotland’s two so-called green freeports.
It is understood the Cromarty Firth and Inverness bid is to be officially confirmed this week by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
It will be a watershed moment for the economy, backers say, creating an estimated 25,000 jobs and attracting billions of pounds of investment.
Alistair Jack, the Scottish Secretary, confirmed last October that a decision had been reached from the five bidders – Opportunity Cromarty Firth, North East Scotland Green Freeport, Orkney Green Freeport, Forth Green Freeport, and Clyde Green Freeport.
The north green freeport is essentially a free trade zone centred on Nigg, the Port of Cromarty Firth, the Port of Inverness and the Inverness Campus backed by some of the world’s leading energy companies.
The bid run by the consortium Opportunity Cromarty Firth (OCF) seeks to make the Highlands “a strategic national renewable energy hub that creates thousands of quality jobs” for “generations” to come.
OCF aims to create an advanced manufacturing plant at Nigg; a serial manufacturing site for floating structures at Invergordon; a state-of-the-art green hydrogen hub; and an applied research, development and training centre for green energy technologies.
To do that seed money £25 million will be provided from the UK government while Highland Council will retain 100 per cent of the uplift in non-domestic rates revenues for 25 years to invest in infrastructure and skills programmes.
The lobbying campaign to bring a green freeport to the north saw unprecedented cross-party political support that saw all the leading politicians in the north join forces with the exception of the Greens who are against the plan.
Easter Ross MP Jamie Stone confirmed he had been told the Highlands is likely to be the site of a green freeport.
"I have heard from many sources that it is very, very likely that the Prime Minister will be making the announcement on Friday and that Opportunity Cromarty Firth has been successful,” he said. "Assuming that is true then I wholeheartedly welcome this initiative by the government and take great pride in being part of the team that lobbied hard for this. I feel my words at Westminster, including during Prime Minister's Questions, on this were not wasted."
Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP Ian Blackford said: “If true, I think the strength of the bid from Cromarty port spoke for itself and I look forward to the opportunities that there will be to bring jobs and prosperity to the Highlands, not just to the ports themselves but the effect right across the area.”
Inverness MP Drew Hendry was just as enthusiastic, saying: “This announcement is a deserved but welcome boost, it was the logical choice, and it is only right that the work done by the whole Highland team was acknowledged.
“It is a credit to the fantastic team Highland approach to this bid. It has been great to see organisations and those across the political spectrum come together to urge both the Scottish and UK governments to award this bid to the Cromarty Firth Port Authority.
“Of course, it won’t only be our Highland communities that will benefit as we will see Scotland’s renewable energy output massively increase.”
Both the UK and Scottish governments issued identical statements: "UK Government and Scottish government ministers and officials are in discussions to finalise decisions on the successful bids for Scottish Green Freeports. We are hopeful that an announcement can be made very shortly."
