Thriving Rural Communities are a Priority

By Phil Thomas, Chairman of the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (SSPO)

For anyone interested in rural economic development – and I have been for all my working life - the Office of National Statistics (ONS) economic publications are always a great source of interest and inspiration. Amongst the myriad of figures that the ONS produces is a range of area breakdowns of Gross Added Value per head of population (GVA/head). In crude terms this reflects the economic activity in an area and allows comparisons between areas across the country. These figures show, and always show, that the richest, most economically active area of the UK is the London region with a GVA/head of £35,638 (in 2011). By comparison, the figure for the North East, the poorest and least economically active area of England is 55% lower at £15,842. This illustrates the scale of the North/South economic divide in England. Looked at by country the UK figures show that, on average, England leads the table with a GVA/head of £21,349, closely followed by Scotland on £20,571, with Northern Ireland on £16,531 and Wales trailing on £15,696. For someone like me, born and brought up in the South Wales valleys, the last figure simply underlines the decline in the fortunes of my birth place since its industrial heydays. The Scottish figures show that the Scottish economy overall is performing quite well compared with other areas of the UK, although all the UK has suffered from the impacts of global economic turndown. Within Scotland itself, there are also some striking differences. On a regional basis the North East is booming with a GVA/head of £31,944, whilst the East and South West regions are at or about the national average and Highlands and islands trails with a GVA/head of £16,893. Cities, such as Edinburgh (£34,176) and Glasgow (£29,963) also do better than their rural hinterlands, and notably the Edinburgh figure is within stick-waving distance of its big sister capital of London. But what about the rural and remote areas of the Highlands and Islands, where salmon farming is located? How do they fare economically? There are some variations because of the differences in the underlying differences in the local economy, but the picture for the four main areas where salmon are grown is approximately as follows. In the Shetlands, the most remote northerly Scottish islands, the GVA/head is £24,017, which reflects a new boom in activity arising from sub-sea oil and gas resources discovered to the west of the islands. However, there is a strong local political focus on long-term economic stability, and the so called ‘traditional industries of aquaculture and fishing’ are seen as playing an essential role in the islands future, along with some tourism and the limited farming that can be achieved. In the Orkney Islands, where salmon farming is still in the developing, the GVA is below the national average at £17,109. The islands have a varied economic mix including livestock farming, aquaculture, fishing, food manufacturing, tourism and small industry, and there are some new opportunities in wave and tidal renewable energy. However, there are challenges because of scale and location of the islands, and the development of an internationally recognised value-adding Orkney food brand, across all sectors, is still to be realised. Finally, we come to the western Scottish mainland, where the GVA/head is £15,852 and the offshore Western Isles where the figure is £15,219, amongst the lowest in Scotland. Both these areas rely on various combinations of livestock farming, fishing, tourism, small scale manufacturing and renewable energy generation: on the mainland forestry also has an important role. However, in both areas salmon farming is already a well established and is a structurally important economic sector. Moreover, in both areas the industry has potential to develop to further build the strength and long-term resilience of the local economy. It would be fanciful to think that the GVA of these remote rural areas could be brought up to the heady figures that are found in some Scottish locations - geography, typography, climate, transport infrastructure and other factors mitigate against that. However, there is a political, social, economic and moral imperative to seek to develop and support thriving rural communities in these areas, and, in its development planning, the Scottish salmon farming industry is regarding that as a national priority.