Is it all housing?
Reading this article that suggests that blaming depopulation on housing is lazy.
My addition to the conversation here:
Granted I'm not in Lochinver BUT the nearest hospital is still around 80 miles away. I moved into one of these communities and brought with me a family; 1 child in nursery, 1 in primary and, until recently, 1 in secondary school. My primary job is seasonal and my partner's primary job is not quite full-time.
I hear, regularly, of jobs available but no housing available. An example; a tiny swimming pool nearby has been needing lifeguards for months; positions are available. There was someone who could take the job, they weren't able to because of no housing.
This goes for school teachers too.
We have fewer services because our housing stock is being depleted for short-term lets. Skye has 10% of the housing removed for short-term letting or as this opinion piece writes that there were 25 right-move rents available in the Highland Council region, whilst there were 4,000 short-term lets available.
Whilst also fighting increasing house prices on wages that are stagnating, via jobs that don't pay well. How is one to compete with folk who can buy sight-unseen? Who have much higher wages and can attain loans to buy what becomes a commercial property?
It's a cycle that starts with houses being bought-out by people who want a return on a financial investment and give no hoots about community.
No housing, no people; no people, no jobs can be filled; no jobs, services disappear.
I also believe that centralisation is a massive problem. Too much of our society is being cut and moved to larger population centers where we receive lesser care because the centralised services are already under-funded and under-workered.
This is an active clearance for commercial gain, in my long-held opinion. Who benefits? Folk who live outwith the communities and those, within, who don't see the problem because their pockets are getting lined.
Perhaps it is lazy. I also believe the people who can change this, and know the solutions, refuse to utilise the solutions because they too are rentiers.
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