Highland Council announces £2 BILLION schools and roads investment programme
Highland Council has announced a hugely ambitious plan to invest more than £2 billion in the region’s roads, school and other infrastructure over the next 20 years.
In what will likely be a huge relief to parents across the region, plans to replace the worst school buildings are a key part of the plan.
Council Convener Bill Lobban said the plan is “what the people of the Highlands need and deserve” and Council leader Raymond Bremner said the big change is that “these projects are deliverable within the foreseeable future.”
It will be funded by borrowing and potential rises in council tax. Two per cent of council tax income annually will also be ring-fenced for investment.
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But the programme is not simply a list of investment priorities and costs but a new approach that will be put to the full council meeting next week for agreement.
The proposals intend to address the two biggest problems facing the council in terms of investment and reputation – schools and roads but other areas are included too.
About one third of the entire school estate in the Highlands is considered in a Poor or C for condition or suitability – the local authority intends to raise that to Good or B.
So over the next decade Phase 1 will see Beauly Primary, Charleston Academy, Fortrose Academy and Inverness High redeveloped as plans for them are at the most advanced stage.
It is expected that work on each of those schools will commence in the next three to five years with an estimated investment of between £155 million to £195 million.
The other schools in Phase 1 need to go through the local masterplan, option appraisal, and the consultation process.
They will likely be completed in the latter part of the next decade and the cost for them is estimated to be £310 million to £385 million.
They include primaries for Alness, Brora, Dingwall and a special school, plus secondaries for Dornoch, Invergordon, Golspie and Thurso.
Altogether an additional £526.8 million is proposed for renewing the school estate and establishing a Community Point of Delivery (Pod) programme, co-locating services with Police Scotland, NHS Highland and other partners to save all concerned money where possible.
Taking just the first 10 years of Phase 1, there will be an initial investment of £797.2 million which provides a “guaranteed £204 million base capital investment for a range of priorities.
The council said: “An additional £106 million in roads capital to sustain and improve on current levels of investment in roads from 2027 onwards. An additional £526.8 million for renewing the school estate and establishing our Community Point of Delivery (Pod) programme.”
Chief executive Derek Brown said: “So the council has a currently approved five-year capital program starting from this year of £435 million. I say what the plan will deliver above and beyond that is the initial Phase 1 – the first 10 years, roads, school property and then that baseline level of capital.
“That's £797 million that has been described as looking at that long-term modelling that's been undertaken, looking at over the 20 years then the potential is for just over £2 billion pounds of investment.”
Convener Bill Lobban said: “Subject to member approval but what we are proposing is a hugely significant, inclusive, long-term and strategic investment programme. It'll create jobs and economic prosperity all across the area
“It's one of the biggest investment programs in the country. It's a radical solution to significant challenges that we face in reducing and maintaining and renewing our asset base.”
He added: “This programme is an investment for the future and is exactly what the people of the Highlands need and deserve.”
Council leader Raymond Bremner said he is enormously hopeful because now there is a road map to delivering these schools within “the foreseeable future.”
He said: “When we've been a council it has always been a case of which one or two schools are we going to do – and now we've got this investment programme it has opened it up to show that these projects are deliverable within the foreseeable future.”
