Alexander tells of hopes for jobless on visit to doomed air base

CHIEF Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has praised a new initiative designed to help find new jobs for Moray workers who have lost their employment as a result of the closure of RAF Kinloss as a frontline air base.

Mr Alexander, who is MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, yesterday visited the former air base for the first time since an announcement on the government's Strategic Defence Review confirmed that Kinloss will be turned into an army base, with the first units expected to move to Kinloss by about 2014-15.

During his visit Mr Alexander met members of the Kinloss Skills Partnership which aims to promote and develop the community around the base as a source of skilled manpower to support the changing business environment in the north-east of Scotland as a whole.

He said: "The detail of the decisions announced last week needs to be worked through, both locally and in the other parts of Scotland where MoD personnel are based. We need to make sure individuals directly affected by base closures have access to the best possible support to pursue alternative employment."

He added: "Kinloss Skills Partnership is doing a very impressive job of understanding and promoting the very wide range of skills that exist among the workforce. With highly skilled people in engineering, IT and other sectors, they have shown that RAF Kinloss personnel are potentially hugely attractive to private sector businesses and to new investors in the area.

"We need to work quickly alongside local bodies like Highlands and Islands Enterprise to ensure those opportunities to attract new investment are taken."