Plan to offer £50,000 to move to isles scrapped

The Scottish government has abandoned a plan to offer young people and families a £50,000 incentive to stay on, or move to, the islands.

The Islands Bond was proposed as a way of helping to reverse depopulation of island communities.

But the government said it had decided against going ahead following responses to public consultation on the plan.

Those in favour of the idea were largely non-island residents, while islander respondents raised concerns.

The Islands Bond was announced last August as part of the Scottish government's National Islands Plan.

It was to be launched this year, with 100 bonds offered at a cost of £5m.

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Rural Affairs and Islands Secretary Mairi Gougeon said the government would now look at other ways of tackling depopulation.

She said: "The Islands Bond was never intended to be a silver bullet to address our island population challenges.

"Rather, it was just one element of our wider work, across all Scottish government, to support our island communities."

The government said that while islanders welcomed attention being given to depopulation, they had raised concerns about the proposed approach of the bonds scheme and whether it would achieve its objectives.

Scotland has more than 90 inhabited islands and there are communities spread across areas including the Western Isles, Highlands, Orkney, Shetland, Argyll and Bute.