© Scottish Salmon
The Highland Council has warned that parts of the region are being “drained” of people as fragile salmon communities succumb to increasing house prices.
Scottish salmon adds more than £220 (€256.9) million a year to the northwest Highlands’ economy, directly supporting around 1,000 local jobs and hundreds of suppliers in the region.
Tavish Scott, chief executive of Salmon Scotland, stated in a press release: “The well-paid, year-round jobs we provide are the lifeblood of Highland and island communities. If we were to disappear, so would the jobs, the local schools, the shops, everything that makes island life liveable.
Scott added by saying: “One of the greatest risks to this way of life is the lack of affordable housing, which is why we’ve been calling on the Scottish Government to ringfence around £10 million of the rent which Crown Estate Scotland receives from salmon farmers to provide housing that enables local working age people to live and work in the town and villages they grew up in.”
