HIE board to be abolished

The Scottish Government has announced that Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is to lose its governing board.

The announcement was made at Holyrood yesterday, with the boards of other enterprise agencies to face the same fate.

Uncertainty over the future of HIE has spiked since a review of enterprise and skills recommended a single board be introduced.

At parliamentary questions yesterday afternoon, Deputy First Minister John Swinney MSP confirmed that the government’s “intention is that, once established, this overarching board will replace individual agency boards”.

Following the exchange, Orkney MSP Liam McArthur said: “The abolition of the Highlands and Islands Enterprise board is further evidence of this government’s obsession with centralising control and decision-making. Ironically, it comes just 24 hours before a government debate on strengthening our island communities.

“In the Highlands and Islands we know that economic development invariably requires different solutions to the central belt. Achieving those solutions has now been made harder by the decision to remove HIE’s board.”