Investment in island communities should have a positive impact on lives - Alix Medlyn Davies

The 2018 Islands (Scotland) Act aims to ensure the country’s economic aspirations can be achieved equally across Scotland’s islands.

Alix Medlyn Davies, Manager in the Place Team at the Scottish Futures Trust

‘Equality’ however is not reached by treating every place the same. To make an impact we need to know what makes a difference to people’s lives. And that will be different from one place to the next.

The measure of effective investment in island communities isn’t just about cost savings and efficiencies, but rather the impact it has on people’s lives: islanders spending fewer nights away from home and family, or one less day away from all the other jobs they need to do. Investment doesn’t have to be big to be important, but it does need to be grounded in what people living in islands need and want.

The National Islands Plan, launched in 2019, brings partnerships and investment together to address island needs. And, it brings with it a capital investment fund to deliver critical local infrastructure.

The focus of the first phase of funding has been on community resilience and the Covid recovery. Learning from this funding round and previous initiatives suggests three specific ways in which island communities can build resilience for change through investment.

The first is pragmatic investment to maintain support to ongoing community sustainability. The second is investment to bridge the gap between major phases of transformation to accelerate its impact. The third is investment now to help build the right conditions for future strategic investment.

When implemented successfully, the combined impact of these lessons shows that, strategically targeted, incremental changes, with deep partnerships, can make big impacts in small places. For example, in early 2010 the Tiree Community Trust built a wind turbine with support from the National Lottery and commercial funding that provides vital income for the island.

The success of the turbine encouraged further investment by the Trust into the island’s harbours. The Trust recognised this wasn’t just about investing in basic infrastructure, but about investing in the future of Tiree. And the impact of this investment goes far beyond financial measurement on spreadsheets. The harbours helped safeguard 18 fishing jobs which in turn are supporting 34 islanders, with four babies born to fishing families last year. The investment has helped retain other young families on the island too, extended tourism via moorings and improved harbour access for community use. This in turn has led to the opening of a seafood shop, with two other small shops opening in the same row of buildings. Further funding, based on place-based principles has led to the development of new business units, and a community-owned fuel station opens shortly.

Our Place team at the Scottish Futures Trust is working with Scottish Government and is

supporting island communities across Scotland through the next phase of funding from the Islands Programme. The aim is to support relevant, targeted interventions in local places with local communities, and to capture learning, testing what’s possible and collaborating to deliver ambitions and impact together.

New ways of thinking about place and investment shows that success doesn’t have to mean spending big money. Success is measured in lives made easier, families and communities staying together and choosing this place to live and have a family. By allowing communities to lead, by listening to the different needs of all of Scotland’s islands, we can hope to achieve equity of opportunity across Scotland’s island communities.

Alix Medlyn Davies, Manager in the Place Team at the Scottish Futures Trust