Exclusive:Highland MPs to meet Scots Secretary to discuss north-west Scotland 'premium'

Douglas Alexander will sit down with Angus MacDonald, Torcuil Crichton and Graham Leadbitter after parliament returns to discuss the “Highland premium”.

It comes after Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire MP Mr MacDonald released the report ‘Remote Scotland: Spiralling Towards Unviability?’

The report found that one in three Highland households are living in fuel poverty, families in remote areas pay around £1,000 more each year on energy than the Scottish average and more than one in five children across the Highland area live in relative poverty.

Lib Dem MP Mr MacDonald has also urged new Prime Minister Andy Burnham to visit the Highlands.

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Mr MacDonald said: "You cannot build a fair devolution settlement without recognising that it costs more to live here.

"Andy Burnham feels that Manchester is 'the north’, well, we think of it as a suburb of London.

“A settlement designed for Manchester doesn't work for Mallaig, and it's the Scotland Office that needs to hear that first.”

A date is yet to be fixed for the meeting with the Scottish Secretary but it is expected within a fortnight of Westminster's return from summer recess at the start of September.

It will be a cross-party meeting as Mr MacDonald will be joined by Labour MP for the Western Isles Torcuil Crichton and SNP MP for Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey Graham Leadbitter.

Former Manchester Mayor Mr Burnham has pledged to give local communities more powers across the UK.

Mr MacDonald urged him to “come up from Manchester and visit the Highlands to see it for yourself”.

He said: “For too long, the Highlands and Islands have been treated as an exception to national policy, rather than a test of whether it is working. This report shows that people here face a ‘Highland premium’ at almost every stage of life - from finding childcare, to heating their homes, accessing healthcare, and finding care at the end of life.

“You cannot build a fair devolution settlement without recognising that it costs more to live here - come up from Manchester and visit the Highlands to see it for yourself. The cost of living is up to 30% higher, incomes are 10% lower, housing is more expensive, public services are less available, there is an ageing population and a dramatic drop in school rolls.

“These aren’t isolated problems. They are the consequence of years of policies that have failed to account for the realities of rural living. Unless governments begin recognising the true cost of living in remote communities, the gap between the Highlands and the rest of the country will only continue to widen.

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“The Highlands cannot be an afterthought in this new conversation about power and place. Andy Burnham built his career on the idea that Westminster doesn’t understand life outside it - well, neither does a settlement designed for Manchester work for Mallaig.

“If he’s serious about the promise of starting with the life people are actually living, he has to start with the honest picture of what people here are actually paying, and going without, just to get by. That's what my report sets out.

“That’s why I’m calling on the Prime Minister to come and see this for himself. Come to the North West of Scotland. Talk to families worrying about care for their grandparents or whether the school will remain open, to people and businesses struggling with energy costs, and to communities fighting to keep essential services alive.”

A UK Government spokesperson said: “The Secretary of State for Scotland looks forward to meeting MPs representing Highlands and Islands communities in the Autumn, to discuss how the UK Government is working to make life better for people in every postcode in the country.”