Who We Are and What We Do

Introducing the Highland Poverty and Equality Commission

What are the root causes of poverty and inequality in the Highlands today? How are these experienced in different parts of the region? And what actions are needed to drive these risks down in a sustainable way?

These are questions at the heart of our work as members of the Highland Poverty and Equality Commission. Composed of five experts from the voluntary, public and business sectors, five elected members and two co-Chairs, we were established by The Highland Council to work in a wholly independent way. Following an interim report in December, we will report back to the Council and its key partners in summer 2026. In the meantime, we will share more of our thinking and emerging calls to action through a series of blog comments, inviting feedback as we go.

Our first meeting took place at The Seaboard Centre, Balintore in August. We developed our ways of working and an outreach programme, to cover as much of the ground as we can in the time available. To break down the challenge, we agreed six priority themes to shape our inquiry:

• Access and connections: transport, digital and integrated public services
• Housing
• Ways of Working (culture) across public services
• Fair Work
• Early Years and Education
• Financial Security

We will pay attention to the threads running through these themes, notably Climate risks and Equity and Diversity.

We are running monthly Sounding Board sessions taking each theme in turn. Hosted by two Commission members, these are a vital opportunity to hear from stakeholders across the Highlands. These run as hybrid conversations to maximise participation. A couple of weeks after each session, we meet as the full Commission to consider findings so far:

• Fort William in October (Access and Connections), with an additional outreach visit to Kinlochleven;
• Kyleakin in November (Housing) with additional visits to Broadford, Portree and Kyle of Lochalsh.
• Online in December (Ways of Working) following conversations with elected members and regional stakeholders in Inverness the day before.

In this way, we intend to deepen our understanding of the issues as they are experienced both across the region and specifically in each location.

Looking ahead, we will be in:

• Alness in January (Fair Work)
• Lairg in February (Early Years and Education)
• Wick in March (Financial Security).

Even at this early stage, some of the picture is clear:

• Just over one in five (22%) children and young people are living in poverty – close to 8,000 across the Highlands. A related measure of children in low-income families shows a three-fold variation between wards with the highest and lowest rates.
• For Scotland as a whole, close to seven in ten children living in poverty are in working households. In-work poverty is today driven by being unable to find enough hours – secure and predictable work across the year – and less commonly by very low wage rates. We will look at the pattern for Highland in depth in the new year. But we are also encouraged by inclusive growth opportunities arising from current and planned renewable energy generation, the potential of Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport and how other infrastructure investment needs can be addressed in ways that drive down poverty and inequality – for example, through more apprenticeships, fair work goals embedded in procurement and community wealth-building through collaboration with the public and business sectors.
• We know that truly affordable housing, especially better-quality social housing, provides a foundation on which people can plan for the future – but restricted supply means too many people are stuck in sub-standard accommodation.
• The higher cost of living is made worse by the higher inflation rate for the essentials – food, fuel, heating. Incomes that might be enough to get by on in the central belt don’t stretch far enough especially in rural and remote areas. Working to achieve affordable warmth for all is an idea galvanising people in a way that ‘targeting fuel poverty’ does not.

As we look ahead to 2026, we will be setting up an Experience Panel to hear from people across the region with first-hand experience of the issues we are grappling with and identifying a number of catalyst areas to make good use of the £300K budget available to the Commission.

We know that poverty and related inequality is a big, deep-rooted challenge. The causes are wider than those found in Highland. And the full range of solutions will need to go across sectors and involve action beyond the region. But we are determined to find ways to maximise the opportunities available to us at a local and regional level – and to mobilise data, money, skills and creative ideas which build on the promising examples already visible. We look forward to hearing your ideas for making Highland a better place to live, especially for people facing the highest costs on the lowest incomes.