National Islands Plan: Fairer Scotland Duty

Principles and Strategic Approach

Fairness, inclusion and human rights

The Plan is explicitly built on principles of fairness, integrated policy, inclusiveness, and sustainability, recognising that all islanders should enjoy dignity and quality public services regardless of where they live. This underpins actions to reduce inequalities caused by socio-economic disadvantage.

Community Wealth Building (CWB)

A central approach of the Plan is Community Wealth Building, an economic strategy that prioritises local ownership, retention of wealth in communities, strengthening local supply chains, and promoting fair work. This is intended to give islanders more control over economic outcomes and opportunities, addressing structural drivers of inequality.

Strategic Objectives Targeting Inequalities

The Plan is structured around strategic objectives that directly (and indirectly) aim to reduce inequality:

Population Retention and Attraction

Actions to support people to live, work and thrive on islands by fostering local opportunities, facilitating housing supply, and retaining younger and economically active residents. This may help mitigate socio-economic pressures that lead low-income households to leave.

Improving Connectivity

Better transport and digital connectivity reduces the isolation that raises costs and limits access to jobs and services, helping reduce economic hardship and opportunity gaps linked to geography.

Housing

Improving the availability of affordable, suitable homes on islands helps prevent housing costs from being a barrier to staying in the community. This would benefit those on low incomes, with limited wealth, or at risk of material deprivation.

Health and Social Care

Actions to strengthen tailored health and care services, including digital care access, reduce barriers to wellbeing that can disproportionately affect disadvantaged households.

Economy, Education and Skills

Targeted support for local businesses, education and skills development aims to expand employment opportunities locally, fostering fair work and career pathways that help reduce income inequalities and in-work poverty.

Poverty and Social Justice

This objective explicitly focuses on reducing poverty and inequality:

• Addressing higher living costs and fuel poverty e.g., via the Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund that gives local authorities flexibility to support vulnerable households.
• Improvements in social security access including tailored approaches to benefit take-up and inclusion of island experiences in future national Benefit Take-Up Strategy development, designed to increase household incomes for those eligible.
• Supporting child poverty work locally through partnerships and tailored local actions, acknowledging that poverty profiles on islands differ and require specific solutions.

Empowered Communities and Culture

Strengthening local capacity and community leadership e.g., through the Strengthening Communities Programme builds resilience, may increase community agency, and enhances the ability of islanders to generate and retain economic and social wealth locally.