JOHN Swinney has said the SNP will take ambitious action to transform Scotland’s rural economy if re-elected – after the Tories’ hard Brexit dealt it a devastating blow.
The Deputy First Minister’s comments came after a visit to Jamesfield Garden Centre in Perth with local candidate Jim Fairlie yesterday.
Jim Fairlie, former hill-farmer and the SNP’s candidate for Perthshire South and Kinross-Shire, has said that keeping people on the land, spending locally and producing more of our own food – sustainably and with nature – will be a top priority for the party in the next parliamentary term and it will take the following action to support this:
- Roll out more mobile health services and create a new centre of excellence for rural and remote medicine and social care to provide expertise and advice on the delivery of care in different rural, island and remote settings in Scotland and invest in our rural general hospitals.
- Support more communities to benefit from Community Wealth Building where public services are required to spend in their local communities through increased local procurement, greater use of small businesses and ensuring taxpayers money is reinvested as far as possible in their local communities.
- Develop a National Digital Academy and give every pupil a laptop or tablet – with free internet access – to allow learners to access education, regardless of circumstances or location.
- Champion our rural and island communities by creating a Rural Entrepreneur Fund, renewing the Community Empowerment Act, introducing new Land Reform Legislation with a presumption in favour of community buy-outs and invest £10 million into the Scotland Loves Local fund to revitalise high streets.
- Improve connectivity by reinstating or developing new railway branch lines across rural Scotland, invest £500m in bus infrastructure and ensure the road network in all parts of Scotland supports electric vehicles.
- Create a new £15m fund to support food processing and manufacture to develop local supply chains and transition to low or zero-carbon operations.
Swinney said: “The SNP will always stand up for Scotland’s rural economy – and our record shows that.
“We fixed the CAP payments system, ensured Scotland got its fair share of convergence funding, delivered the Borders Railway – the longest new domestic railway to be built in Britain in over 100 years – and the first section of our £3 billion project to dual the A9 from Perth to Inverness has been completed.
“Our focus, if re-elected, will be to invest to help people and businesses produce more of our own food sustainably, and with nature, and champion flourishing rural and island communities by improving connectivity and promoting local produce locally.”
Fairlie said: “As a former hill-farmer and active member of Perth’s rural community, I understand that what works in urban Scotland may not be fit for our rural or island communities and vice versa.
“The SNP will put rural communities at the heart of its ambitious plans to transform Scotland’s rural economy and make the whole of Scotland – cities, islands and countryside alike – a better place to live, work and grow up.
“It is only by voting SNP, the only party offering a route back to EU membership, on May 6 that we can not only protect our rural economy but promote it and put Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands – not Boris Johnson’s.”
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