A ‘green freeport’ is to be established in northern Scotland that could generate at least 11,000 jobs in the next 25 years.
Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport (ICFGF) will be an international hub for the offshore renewable energy sector – made up of zones where tax incentives and lower tariffs are available to companies.
The Highland port has committed to meeting net zero targets and supporting fair work practices.
Normal tax and customs rules do not apply in full at freeports.
Scotland’s deputy first minister Kate Forbes said the signing was an “exciting milestone” that could bring up to 11,300 jobs to the Highlands.
She told the BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme the freeports had been “very carefully designed” around workers’ rights.
She said UK and Scottish ministers had ensured such sites comply with their Fair Work First policy and rejected suggestions that green freeports were an example of “greenwashing”.
ICFGF is a partnership of private and public sector organisations, and its directors include bosses at Highland Council, University of the Highlands and Islands, SSE Renewables and Global Energy Group.
It has six main sites including Port of Cromarty Firth in Invergordon, Port of Nigg, Highland Deephaven near Evanton, and Inverness Campus.
Over the next 25 years, ICFGF said it expected to create thousands of high-quality jobs, many of them in the offshore wind sector.
It added the port would attract more than £6.5bn of investment.
The project is one of two green freeports in Scotland, with the other being on the Firth of Forth.
The signing of a memorandum of understanding for the port also unlocked £25m of UK government seed funding, financial support provided to companies in their early stages, to support local infrastructure projects.
Scottish secretary Douglas Alexander said setting up ICFGF was a “pivotal moment” in the UK government’s mission to boost economic growth across the UK.
Transform the economy
He said: “The freeport has the potential to show that we can transform places that benefitted from the oil and gas industry half a century ago.
“Inverness and Cromarty Green Freeport will transform the economy of the Highlands, as well as playing a key role in our clean energy future.”
ICFGF chief executive Calum MacPherson said the port’s ambition was to deliver positive change for the economic prosperity of the Highlands.
Tax benefits for employers at the port include a three-year holiday from paying employers’ National Insurance contributions on new recruits.
Such advantages, say commentators, present a risk that economic activity is sucked out of other areas. But it is thought likely that supply chains around freeport hubs will be helped by more activity. For example, the construction industry will gear up to build homes for the increased number of workers expected.
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