The outgoing chairman of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has said he is confident the agency board’s autonomy is secure for the foreseeable future.
Lorne Crerar, who, after eight years in the post steps, down from his role at the end of this week, admitted that the Scottish Government’s Enterprise and Skills review in 2017, which threatened to remove HIE’s board was a low point of his tenure.
But Mr Crerar, who said negotiations to try to stop the publicly funded organisation’s functions becoming centralised caused him “sleepless nights”, believes it has emerged from the process stronger.
Looking back on his time as chairman, Mr Crerar said: “The low point was the Enterprise and Skills Review that threatened the existence of HIE as we know it. My great fear at the time was that I did not want to be the ‘dodo’ of HIE – the last of a breed called chairperson.
“While that was a low point and was potentially very bad news, it’s funny how bad news can actually become very good news, because there was lots of support for HIE and we were able to persuade the Scottish Government.
“I ended up doing the governance when there was a review of how it could all work.”
He continued: “So now we are in a stronger position because our autonomy is unaffected, we sit at the top table with Skills Development Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council, the other enterprise agencies and we can influence them about what we need to do in our region and we also have a voice on the Scottish stage.
“So, while it started as sleepless nights for quite a long time, it’s actually turned out for the better. Also they have created the South of Scotland agency, which is in Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders, and I think that it’s interesting that they have created that agency in the absolute mirror-image of HIE, including its communities remit.
“I think lots of lessons have been learned and HIE is held out as being a bit of an exemplar as an economic development agency here in the UK, but also abroad.
“It’s easy to criticise, but it actually does what it says on the tin and having gone through it, I don’t think in my lifetime we will go through it again.”
Mr Crerar, who is co-founder and chairman of one of Scotland’s leading law firms, Harper Macleod, singled out the development of the University of the Highlands and Islands’ Inverness campus as one of HIE’s major achievements during his tenure.
And he hinted that HIE could be in line for additional funding after taking a cut in the Scottish Government’s recent budget.
He said: “I’ve been in touch with the Scottish Government and I think things will change there.
“They are going to try and help us ameliorate difficulties that we would have with that.
“There’s a kind of inevitability about that kind of austerity, but I think this year we will do better than we originally thought.”