A series of recommendations aimed at reducing poverty and inequality across the Highlands by 2030 will come before Highland Council this week.
The independent Highland Poverty and Equality Commission’s final report, Essential Elements, draws on nine months of extensive engagement across the region - including 26 outreach visits across 14 communities, stakeholder sessions and evidence gathering from people with direct experience of financial hardship.
The independent commission, which was co-chaired by Maggie Cunningham and Jim McCormick, has delivered a clear message: Poverty in the Highlands is real, damaging and costly, but it is not inevitable.
The report will come before councillors at a meeting of the full Highland Council on Thursday (25 June) followed by a launch event hosted by New Start Highland.
The Commission has called for a fundamental shift in how organisations work together, and has urged:
- Deeper forms of collaboration between sectors, recognising the essential role of voluntary and community organisations.
- A move towards pooled funding and shared accountability for how it is targeted to achieve better outcomes for people and places facing hardship.
- More meaningful involvement of people with direct experience of poverty and inequality in shaping the support they need.
The report was commissioned by The Highland Council and its Community Planning Partners from across public services, charities, and community organisations. They will all now share in the challenge of responding to the calls to action.
The report identifies a number of issues which are affecting communities across the Highlands, including:
- Increasing in-work poverty: seven in ten children living in poverty in the Highlands are in working households.
- Alarming levels of fuel poverty, with rates around double the Scottish average
- A shortage of affordable housing and a clear need to improve energy efficiency.
- Barriers to opportunity caused by poor transport and digital connectivity, particularly in rural areas.
- Concerns from young people about housing, financial security and lack of influence on decision-making.
- Mixed early years and education outcomes: Highland has been behind the Scottish average on the poverty-related attainment gap, but literacy and numeracy improvements have been achieved more recently.
The Commission found that many people experiencing poverty feel unheard and excluded from decisions that directly affect their lives, but they were motivated to engage with decision-makers on solutions.
The report includes a data dashboard showing how Highland is faring on a range of poverty-related indicators.
Building on Strengths
Despite these challenges, the report includes a map of bright spots across the region in the shape of many community-led organisations and models of collaboration that are delivering support and valued services.
Within Highland there is opportunity to replicate the many examples of good practice already taking place – such as in efforts to reduce or eliminate the cost of the school day as was highlighted at Dalneigh Primary in Inverness, along with partners like Inverness CT Community Trust, who run breakfast clubs, community programmes and sport sessions.
The Social Value Charter, which has been drawn up by Highland Council, has provided a mechanism to achieve long-term gains from the concentration of investment into renewable energy, construction, skills and apprenticeships and related housing development.
Calls to Action
The Commission has set out Calls to Action on six themes:
- Transform culture and ways of working across sectors: other Calls to Action will stand or fall on how effectively Highland stakeholders share budgets, risks and responsibility for progress especially with the voluntary and community sector.
- Coordinate action to increase take-up of financial support, underpinned by greater data-sharing to reduce the friction people experience when seeking support.
- Expand Highland Hubs and collaborate to improve public/community transport options, and speed up digital access.
- Increase investment into affordable, accessible housing with improved energy efficiency bringing affordable warmth.
- Grow high-quality, place-based early learning and childcare with the flexibility needed in rural areas, tackle the costs of the school day and reduce the poverty-related attainment gap in education.
- Remove barriers and boost opportunities to secure fair work, with structured pathways into growth sectors and greater support for progression at work.
The Commission is urging decision-makers to give their initial response by the end of 2026, ahead of the budget and local election cycle, and a single progress report across partners within a year.
Co-Chairs Jim McCormick and Maggie Cunningham said: “Poverty and inequality across Highland today are real, damaging and costly, but they can be resolved.
“We have heard echoes of fatalism – that there is belief that things cannot really improve. The conclusion we have reached is different
“Poverty is not a force of nature that cannot be changed. We have seen in our past, and still see today in some neighbouring societies, that poverty can be reduced substantially.
“What sustains our hope are the bright spots we have encountered. These are often community anchors of many shapes and sizes, building the connections in everyday life that enable us to live better lives. They often do this against the odds and despite the systems they sit within.
“Highland’s greatest strengths lie in its community assets - driven by people who care deeply about the issues we cover in this report. The support offered by community groups and third sector organisations – by volunteers and staff – is often the most trusted and fragile at the same time.
“We cannot afford to take this support for granted.”
NOTES TO EDITORS:
- Highland Council established the independent Highland Poverty and Equality Commission in 2025 with a view to identifying causes, consequences and solutions to poverty – much of which is hidden and undocumented within the region’s diverse communities.
- Along with the report three companion reports by Involve (on the commission’s Experience Panel findings), Youth Highland (youth-led responses) and DataKind UK (the role of data) are also published.
- About the co-chairs: Jim McCormick is Chief Executive of The Robertson Trust, an independent grant-making charity which funds, supports and influences solutions to poverty and trauma across Scotland. He joined the Trust in 2020. Previously he was Associate Director Scotland with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2017-20). He is a member of the Living Wage Commission.
- Maggie Cunningham, worked at a senior level in the BBC for over 20 years including roles as head of Radio Scotland. She is currently chair of An Comunn Gàidhealach, which runs the Royal National Mòd. Since 2009, she has worked as a leadership and executive coach. She served six years as a content board member of Ofcom and chaired the board of MG Alba for six years from 2012. She chairs Kyle and Lochalsh Community Development Trust and was an independent member of the Edinburgh Festivals Forum for eight years. She was a founding board member of Sistema Scotland until 2019 and is a director of Highland Tourism Community Interest Company (CIC).
- Highland Council, which commissioned the report, has set out plans to increase the supply of affordable housing through its affordable housing challenge, aiming to make an 24,000 homes available over the next 10 years.
- The Highland Investment Plan (HIP) is a £2.1 billion, 20-year capital investment programme being led by Highland Council to deliver improvements to local infrastructure and services, financed through a combination of capital investment and a dedicated annual allocation of two per cent ring-fenced Council Tax revenue. As part of this, a new generation of community facilities was envisioned for the Highlands, with Points of Delivery (PODs) providing a range of public services brought together in a single location.
- Support for continuous improvement across Highland Council schools is informed by the Raising Attainment and Achievement Strategy and associated Education and Learning Improvement Plan.
Essential Elements - the Calls to Action report from the independent Highland Poverty and Equality Commission will be presented to The Highland Council on the morning of Thursday 25 June and at a hybrid launch event at New Start Highland, Inverness.