APPENDIX Highlands and Islands Conveners’ Group

(APPENDIX 3)

Alex Neil MSP Chief Executive’s Service Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital The Highland Council Glenurquhart Road Investment Inverness IV3 5NX The Scottish Government St. Andrew's House Please ask for: Kate Lackie Regent Road Tel: (01463) 702041 e-mail [email protected] Edinburgh EH1 3DG Date 1 May, 2012

Dear Alex

At a meeting of the Highlands and Islands European Board on Monday 2 April, it was agreed that we should write to set out our formal position with regard to the Single Plan for the delivery of European Funds 2014-20.

The Board's unanimous and strongly held view is that there should be a separate Highlands and Islands Plan in order to protect the specific development opportunities of the area. HIEP take the view that there are significant challenges in the Highlands and Islands which require special consideration, and a special approach. These include:

• Critical structural differences between the economies of the Highlands and Islands and the rest of Scotland; • Serious fragility of the Island economies in particular, when compared against Scottish, UK and EU performance; • A need for continued investment in relation to weak connectivity infrastructure; • On-going challenges of remoteness, deep-rurality and super-sparsity of population; and • On-going challenges of depopulation, demographic profile and population drift."

Should the move to a single Scotland Plan prevail, then the HIEP is seeking assurances that the special needs of the region will be fully recognised - particularly that recognition be given to the Region’s likely transition status and the funding that is attached to this. To this end, we have put the Board forward as key stakeholder in COSLA’s input into the Plan and we will identify regional representatives to work on the Thematic Groups which the Government propose to assist in the development of any Scottish Plan.

The Board would also like to express its concerns over the integration of the Highlands & Islands Partnership Programme (HIPP) into the Government’s Structural Funds Division. We particularly want to see a regionally based presence to assist in the delivery of future EU funding initiatives. HIPP employees have considerable expertise in the field of programme delivery and have developed strong links with many key regional partners. It would be a loss to effective European regional development if these attributes were to be lost from the Highlands & Islands.

Members are: Argyll & Bute Council, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, The Highland Council, The Moray Council, North Ayrshire Council, Orkney Islands Council, Shetland Islands Council. APPENDIX

We would be grateful for an early response to these points and we would be happy for the Board Secretariat to discuss this further with your officials to progress as a priority.

Yours sincerely

Michael Foxley Leader

Members are: Argyll & Bute Council, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, The Highland Council, The Moray Council, North Ayrshire Council, Orkney Islands Council, Shetland Islands Council.