The Highlands

HC Deb 18 March 1964 vol 691 cc1371-2

26. Mr. Rankin

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland, in view of the fact that industrial development in the central Scottish belt has always tended to attract people from the Highland areas, what compensating industrial projects he proposes for the Highlands of Scotland to help in stabilising or increasing their population.

Mr. G. Campbell

The promotion of a healthy economy in the Highlands, and other parts of Britain that are losing population, is a main aim of the Government's regional development policies. How best to apply these policies to the Highlands will be settled in the light of the study in which the Scottish Development Group is now engaged. Meanwhile I would remind the hon. Member of the steps taken to enable the pulp mill project at Fort William to go ahead, with an employment potential of 2,500 jobs, direct and indirect, throughout the Highlands.

Mr. Rankin

Is not the Minister aware that, despite all that he has said, over the whole period of his Government's life the population of the Highlands has declined? Does the hon. Gentleman realise that his Government's policies have been too miserable to arrest that decline? Will he remember that when Glasgow was the great growth point there was a steady inflow of Highland people to the City, and that my division of Govan still bears witness to that fact? Will the hon. Gentleman note the words of the Principal of St. Andrews University, that the one great industrial project which the Government can now give the Highlands is a university, and will he emphasise that fact to his right hon. Friend?

Mr. Campbell

I think the hon. Gentleman will agree that Central Scotland must have priority as it is the heart of the Scottish economy, but my right hon. Friend is fully aware of the implications of the plan for Central Scotland on other areas, such as the Highlands and the Borders, and that is the reason for the special studies which are taking place for those areas.

The question of a university, which the hon. Gentleman raised, is another one, but I know that Inverness is one of the places which the University Grants Committee is now investigating.