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Highlands and Islands Enterprise
26/09/2007
Plans to re-focus and re-energise Highlands and Islands Enterprise were today outlined by John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth.
In a statement to Parliament, Mr Swinney said the proposed changes would make Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE):
- More clearly focused on the goal of delivering sustainable economic growth
- More responsive to the needs of businesses and the Highlands and Islands economy as a whole. Central to the proposals are:
- A strategic forum involving Ministers, officials, HIE, Scottish Enterprise (SEn) and Visit Scotland to provide clear ministerial leadership and promote greater integration and collaboration
- Business Gateway, which provides advice to new start and local businesses serving mainly local markets, to be extended to Highlands and Islands Enterprise area
- HIE to retain its strengthening communities remit
- The Local Enterprise Companies (LECs) structure will be removed, although nine local offices will be retained across the Highlands and Islands region to reflect the diverse nature of its areas within a large land mass
- Local authorities will be expected to enhance business engagement and local responsiveness in economic development delivery. Through these reforms local businesses should be better able to reach a single point of access for advice on planning, licensing, business development and other services
- The transfer of most skills and training elements from the enterprise networks to a single skills body resulting from the merger of Careers Scotland and learndirect Scotland. SEn and HIE will continue to deliver interventions that are specific to business growth, such as leadership development programmes
- A requirement for the enterprise networks, VisitScotland and the skills body to look to share services where possible
- Commitment to look at the use of grants to small businesses in the HIE area and to consider whether it would make sense to combine HIE grants schemes with other national schemes that are now being brought into SEn. Under the new arrangements, HIE will aim to engage with at least 500 business and community leaders. Panels and the internet would be used to achieve region-wide participation in development, while HIE would strengthen its relationships with trade associations and representative bodies and engage the voices of larger companies and their senior managers
Mr Swinney said:
"The proposals we have set out in this statement will reinvigorate the enterprise networks - re-energising them towards a shared goal with Government of delivering increased and sustainable economic growth.
"We will remove the unnecessary bureaucracy created by having 21 separate LEC boards with 21 sets of governance arrangements. Instead, there will be six regional operations across Scotland. HIE will operate on of these.
"This is an important step in reducing bureaucracy and streamlining local enterprise development delivery. However, in removing the LEC and LEF structures, our overriding concern is to preserve their best features, particularly the vital engagement they provided with local business.
"We will also be taking forward the presumption that more and more Scottish Enterprise and HIE staff should be located around Scotland rather than at their Headquarters.
"With Scottish Enterprise firmly focused on national and regional priorities it is entirely right that local authorities assume an enhanced role in local economic development.
"What we want to achieve out of these reforms is that local businesses will be able to reach a single point of access for advice - planning, licensing, business development and other services and that will be a great contrast to the pillar to post experience of many businesses today.
"I recognise the very strong correlation between thriving communities and economic growth in remote and rural areas. We intend therefore that HIE should retain its strengthening communities remit.
"Later this year the Government will publish its economic strategy that will be implemented by our refocused, re-invigorated enterprise networks. As a result, the foundations we have laid today will be crucial in creating the more successful, wealthier and fairer Scotland of the future."
The Government today set out its intention to replace LECs with six regional operations across Scotland. For SEn these regions will be:
- Grampian (Aberdeen City and Shire)
- Tayside (Dundee, Perth & Kinross, Angus)
- Edinburgh and East Central (Edinburgh, the Lothians, Fife, Clackmannanshire, Falkirk, Stirling)
- South of Scotland (Borders, Dumfries and Galloway)
- Glasgow and West Central (Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Dunbartonshire, Ayrshire and Lanarkshire)
There will be a single region served by Highlands & Islands Enterprise.
These regions will deliver national and regional economic development activity in their respective areas. They will be involved in providing company account management, support for priority industries and the delivery of regional and national projects.
To further promote integration with the tourism sector, VisitScotland will rationalise its own 14 offices to six - one for each of the enterprise networks regions - and Area Tourism Partnerships will continue linking in turn with local Destination Management Organisations, which should create another opportunity for local business engagement and leadership.
This does not mean the wholesale closure of existing LEC offices. Enterprise Network staff will remain in those offices, working as now with local businesses and stakeholders. But - consistent with our efficient government agenda - opportunities should be sought over time for co-location with, for example, relevant local authority staff.
The proposals also envisage a substantial transfer of functions from SEn HQ into its local and regional offices.
The Strategic Forum will ensure that all economic development agencies are working in a co-ordinated way to achieve greater economic growth. The strategic forum will promote greater alignment and more integrated activity, initially between Scottish Enterprise, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, and VisitScotland. We will also look over time to include the skills body and the Scottish Funding Council together with Transport Scotland. The intention is to hold the first meeting as soon as possible and by the end of the year at the latest.
The Education and Lifelong Learning Secretary Fiona Hyslop announced plans to bring a national focus on skills by bringing organisations together into a single skills body earlier this month
Ms Hyslop also set out her plans to merge Careers Scotland with learndirect Scotland to form the nucleus of a new skills body. Today it has been confirmed the main skills and training elements of the enterprise networks will also be part of that body. However, the enterprise networks will retain those interventions which are business-specific and which form a crucial part of their account management function. These include leadership development programmes and business mentoring schemes.
Futureskills Scotland will move into the Scottish Government but will continue to influence the development of strategy in both the enterprise networks and the new skills body.
The Business Gateway provides advice to new start and local businesses serving mainly local markets. It is appropriate that it should be delivered by local authorities with whom these businesses already interact on a range of local issues. The importance of maintaining national consistency in Business Gateway service and standards is, however, well understood. So this will be a condition of the transfer, alongside monitoring to ensure that emerging business with high growth potential are referred to the enterprise networks. It was also announced that the Business Gateway will become a national service and will be extended to cover the HIE area.
To achieve greater alignment of economic development activity, the enterprise networks, VisitScotland and the new skills body will be asked to put arrangements in place to share services across a range of areas. This will not just apply to back office functions like finance, legal and IT. Opportunities will be sought to share more mainstream activity such as marketing and priority sector working.