The Scottish Government has awarded the council £60,000 for 2024/25 from the Addressing Depopulation Fund, as part of a wide-ranging plan to strengthen communities facing population decline, including funding for local-led research, initiatives, and community support.

Projections show that Scotland’s population is set to fall from 2033, with fourteen local authority areas projected to experience population decline over the next decade. As an area experiencing acute depopulation, North West Sutherland was identified as the most appropriate place to focus grant-funded actions, mirroring the geography of the NW2045 vision.

Chair of the Highland Council’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee, Councillor Ken Gowans, said: “The Highland Council recognises the impact of depopulation and aims to support measures to reverse the decline and ensure the sustainability of rural populations.

“The factors that lead to depopulation are complex and can include issues surrounding housing, healthcare, transport, childcare and education. I am delighted we have been awarded this funding which will be used to back a range of local-led initiatives in the Northwest Sutherland area, initiatives that can be trialled and then rolled out to support other rural areas.

He added: “We look forward to working closely with communities to reverse the population decline and work through the barriers and challenges the area faces to enable people to live, work and be resilient, with a future that matches their aspirations.”

The funding will be used to lead two new strands of work. The first is to explore alternative childcare solutions. A lack of access to and availability of high quality and affordable childcare is a key aspect of encouraging young families to stay and move to an area. This is a key challenge in the rural and remote areas which tend to have fewer children and less opportunity for childcare businesses to be financially viable.

Families in these areas are more likely to need access to flexible childcare to accommodate non-standard seasonal work patterns; childcare before/after school, weekends and holidays; and they need to be very local to avoid long travel times and to avoid routes that can be disrupted in adverse weather. Part of the funding from the Scottish Government will be used to investigate potential new models to deliver childcare that meets the particular needs of rural communities in NW Sutherland. It is expected that models tuned to local needs could be replicated across other rural areas of the Highlands.

Equalities minister Kaukab Stewart added: “By supporting access to affordable childcare, this initiative will make it easier for parents to live, work and raise families in the area. This will help the community retain the people it needs to thrive, while also giving the local economy a boost.

“The Highland Council is one of six local authorities across Scotland to benefit from the £360,000 Addressing Depopulation Fund, which is part of our plan to ensure that communities right across Scotland are supported to address the impact of population decline.”

The second project will look to bring forward the NW2045 vision – transforming aspirations of the communities into a clear delivery plan that can make a positive difference to retaining the population and encouraging more people to choose to live and work in the area.

NW2045 was established in 2020 as a proactive response to the many cross-sectoral cross-regional challenges, and particularly to address the causes of rural depopulation. It is a coalition of organisations based, and highly active in, the Northwest Highlands.

NW2045 has produced a community-led vision to reflect the urgent need to reverse the current degenerative cycle into a regenerative cycle, with communities thriving economically, socially and environmentally. The resources from the Scottish Government funding will help transform the vision into a delivery plan that is specific to the social and economic situation of the area.

These activities to address depopulation in Northwest Sutherland will be supported by the Settlement Officer for North-West Sutherland, Boyd Alexander. He is working with agencies, landowners and other organisations on specific projects to tackle key challenges, particularly housing.