Overview

Focus North is a regional partnership working to transform Caithness and Sutherland into a thriving hub for green energy, innovation, and inclusive economic growth. Building on the region’s strengths it aims to harness the opportunity presented by the Just Transition and the decommissioning of Dounreay. The region already generates 12.5 times more energy than it consumes, has leading wind and tidal assets, and is home to emerging sectors like hydrogen, battery storage, and space technology. Focus North works to ensure local communities benefit economically while also protecting vital natural resources like the Flow Country.

Gap the project addresses

Focus North is responding to long-standing economic and demographic challenges in the far north of Scotland. These include population decline, limited infrastructure, and dependence on public sector and legacy industry employment. The partners are tackling these issues by attracting and developing a skilled workforce, expanding physical and digital infrastructure to support diversification into high-growth sectors. A key focus is to ensure local people and businesses benefit from major renewable and innovation investments in the area. This means helping young people to understand the huge diversity of career opportunities coming to the region and ensuring that the educational pathways are available for them to succeed in these careers.

Ownership model

Focus North is a non-statutory collaboration of key public and private sector stakeholders. It includes Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), NRS Dounreay (Dounreay), the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), The Highland Council (HC), Skills Development Scotland (SDS), Caithness Chamber of Commerce (CCoC), and the Scottish Government (SG). Strategic direction comes from a senior-level Board, while an Advisory Board led by Highland Council ensures strong community and third sector engagement.

Development of ownership model

Focus North partnership was originally established as the Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership (CNSRP) in 2007. Its original remit was specifically to look at the transition to a post Dounreay economy, addressing concerns about the effect of the major employer in the region reducing employment and finally closing altogether as it decommissioned. At the time of the partnership’s establishment this deadline appeared to be close – with one estimate suggesting it could have been as early as 2022. When established the partnership undertook widespread local consultation, including holding large scale public gatherings to gather a consensus on local economic priorities and this resulted in a Caithness and North Sutherland development plan. This was translated into an action plan that CNSRP partners adopted to be delivered through a delivery group consisting of operational managers from each of the partner organisations.
Programme activity and goals is under continuous scrutiny and review by multiple stakeholders and external consultation, particularly with the changing economic structure of the area (specifically Dounreay end dates, with an end date now expected in 2070, and growth of renewables sector). The revised programme is more focused on attracting local benefit from the immediate opportunities and strengthening and diversifying the economy as a result of these. This new approach was launched at an event in 2022 under the Focus North identity.

Communication of Focus North activity and feedback on priorities is undertaken through the Board, Advisory Board and engagement with multiple local groups and activities such as:

• A delivery group member is the chair of the Caithness community planning partnership.
• The programme manager is the deputy chair of the Dounreay stakeholder group socio economic committee
• Multiple delivery group members are involved in forums such as the Caithness and Sutherland transport forums. The Caithness forum is run by the Caithness
• Chamber of Commerce – a core Focus North partner.
• The programme manager sits on the UHI North, West and Hebrides ‘North’ Advisory group
• The programme manager is a Trustee of the Flow Country Partnership, working to support the UNESCO World Heritage site and community based economic development as a result of peatland restoration.
• Regular updates are provided to and feedback sought from Highland Council local area committees in Caithness and Sutherland.
• Surveys have been undertaken annually with senior phase students at the local high schools and college to identify key issues and opportunities with this group.

There is a communications programme providing updates via social media and through the local and wider press. This programme includes one major conference event each year where 150+ local stakeholders and the general public attend, scheduled to fit with the school and college timetables.

Policy and funding

Core funding is provided by partners with direct financial support from HIE, and HC.  Other partners provide staff time, use of facilities and share expertise and facilities.  Project development and implementation are funded by partners on a case-by-case basis.  Major recent investments have included spaceport Sutherland and the Saint Ola pier upgrade at Scrabster harbour which benefitted from £millions from The NDA and HIE.   HC and CCoC support innovation, infrastructure, and skills. Across the Highlands and Islands private sector projects of more than £100 billion [1] in investment have been identified. These renewable, space, and environmental technology developments align perfectly with national Just Transition and Net Zero policies.

Impact to Date

The region now exports the majority of its energy, powered by a renewable mix that includes over 430 MW of onshore wind and the world’s largest tidal-stream energy project. Offshore wind developments are set to power 2.5 million homes. The Sutherland Spaceport is forecast to bring numerous of jobs. Locally, £117 million of Dounreay’s annual spend remains in the North Highlands economy. These data points reflect strong momentum in building a resilient and innovative low-carbon economy.  These opportunities provide a once in a generation chance to establish a diverse low carbon and growing economy in the north of Scotland and reversing longstanding population decline.

Contribution to just transition

Focus North aims to lead Scotland’s Just Transition by creating a fairer, greener economy while preserving the region’s unique landscapes and communities. Focus North contributes to Scotland’s Just Transition by aligning with several of the Scottish Government’s National Just Transition Outcomes.

• Jobs, Skills & Economic Opportunities: Focus North supports high-quality employment through renewable energy, space, and environmental sectors. Multiple offshore wind, onshore wind, transmission and storage projects, the Sutherland Spaceport and tidal energy developments are expected to create hundreds of skilled jobs and apprenticeships.
• Fair Distribution of Benefits: By investing in local infrastructure, digital connectivity, and housing, the initiative ensures that the benefits of the green economy are shared across communities in Caithness and Sutherland.
• Empowered Communities: The project is built on a collaborative model, with strong local representation through its Advisory Board, ensuring that communities have a voice in shaping their future.
• Environmental Sustainability: Focus North protects and promotes natural assets like the Flow Country peatlands, contributing to climate resilience and biodiversity.

Local/regional industrial heritage

Focus North is deeply rooted in the industrial heritage of Caithness and Sutherland, particularly the legacy of the Dounreay nuclear site. For decades, Dounreay has been major employer and a symbol of technological advancement in the region. The ongoing decommissioning created possibility for a significant economic gap, prompting the formation of the Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership (CNSRP) – the foundation upon which Focus North was built. Revised decommissioning plans now mean Dounreay will continue to employ significant numbers of staff for decades to come. However, this historical context and current opportunities shape the partnership’s mission: to transition to an economy based around renewable energy production, transmission and storage, innovation, and environmental stewardship. In doing so, Focus North honours the region’s industrial past while steering it toward a sustainable future.

Benefits to the local area and Scotland

Focus North seeks to diversify and grow the regional economy. One of the key issues is to attract and retain more of the young people in the region and to attract skilled workers from elsewhere. In the short term this will help Increase resilience in the local economy and help rebalance historic depopulation and demographic trends. With a higher proportion of young people, the natural consequence is to increase critical mass for social and healthcare and more general economic growth. This will raise additional local and national taxes through a growing economy which in turn creates opportunities for commercial business and simultaneously reduces the burden on the state.

At a national level the renewable energy developments in and around the north Highlands are vital for the UK and Scottish national transitions to low carbon energy. Retaining and attracting a skilled workforce and developing a thriving local economy will support the development of these nationally important projects more rapidly and at a lower cost. Investment in succeeding in achieving this will provide both national and local benefit.

Lessons learned

The key positive learnings are:

• Partner organisations working collaboratively have provided resources to enable Focus North to identify and respond to key local challenges.
• Focus North has allowed multiple stakeholders a forum to discuss local issues and shape and understand how these are being addressed.
• It has been possible to develop specific projects in the region due to the local collaborations of regional and national organisations. Funding of St Ola pier and spaceport Sutherland being the most recent examples.
• The Beatrice Offshore Windfarm has had a transformational effect on Wick harbour and the economy in Wick. This demonstrates the benefits and highlights the opportunity in attracting similar projects to be based here.

Focus North’s remit is specifically around economic development but works closely with the Community planning partnerships. As a result, the action programme focuses on economic development and hence does not directly assess or address challenges around issues such as healthcare, social care, or education. However, these issues are the purview of individual partner organisations – notably Highland Council and as a result these issues are brought to the table and built into thinking as action plans are developed.

This can provide a challenge around mission drift – the partnership concentrates the bulk of its effort on economic development, but because of its cohesive forums issues or opportunities are often brought to these. These instances are usually dealt with by signposting and collaboration with wider partnerships, as with limited resources it’s not possible to include everything in the action programmes.

The partnership is broad based with multiple inputs from stakeholders and partners, and so prioritisation is achieved through consensus. As a result of the close working relationships through the partnership there are seldom significant variations between partners’ understanding and approach to opportunities and issues in the region. When dealing with large scale projects and commercial organisations from outside the area that may have different interests the cohesive approach developed through the partnership provides a strong regional consensus that helps to interact with these to the benefit of the area.

Constraints and challenges

The partnerships constraints challenges and limiting factors are partly aligned to the regional resourcing challenges:

• Due to the geographic size of the area and distance between these communities, it is more difficult to provide infrastructure and services which has resulted in historic under-investment in essential infrastructure, particularly roads, transport, housing and health. This has been further negatively impacted by loss of European regional funding post Brexit.
• Historic population decline exacerbated by centralisation of services. This impacts on community capacity to develop and implement community-based solutions.
• Focus North exists to drive local benefits. There is a danger that projects are developed by centralised organisations where the impact is felt locally yet the benefits occur outside of the region. This perception of impact without benefit is felt keenly by many local communities.
• National policies and initiatives are often poorly aligned to needs of rural Highland. For example, national approaches to investment often seek projects of a scale too large for the region, yet don’t allow aggregation of multiple needs.  There are no nationally significant projects identified in the National Planning Framework 4 in the Highlands, as an example.
• High cost of living contributing to many communities scoring high on SIMD index with fuel poverty, public transport and access to healthcare services particular issues.

Replication and scaling

The Focus North area is the ideal location to undertake pilot activities that would solve local issues and simultaneously allow agile creation of new solutions that could be scaled up and rolled out nationally. A cohesive partnership already exists, and there is a high degree of consensus on the key issues and what would need to be done to rectify some of these.

The Focus North approach could be replicated if this approach to a cohesive cross agency regional approach to developing the solutions needed for a just transition demonstrates more rapid progress.  Such an approach could then be rolled out nationally, building on existing partnerships where appropriate, or establishing these where necessary. Supporting Focus North to pilot this approach would also redress long standing in equalities in an area that has numerous hard-to-reach and marginalised communities.

Working conditions and fair work practices

Featured organisations and initiatives were asked to supply the following information regarding working conditions:

• Alignment with Scottish Government Fair Work First criteria
• If they have gone beyond Fair Work First by incorporating broader values on fair work
• For larger organisations, whether a union recognition agreement is in place.

This did not apply to co-operatives structures and membership-based initiatives, though all projects and initiatives were given room to provide any detail on fair work practices deemed relevant.

The following information was provided:

The partnership includes several public sector bodies – Highland Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland, and of course the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and it’s NRS Dounreay site.  All these bodies promote and encourage Fair Work first practises and have formal recognition agreements and good working relationships with relevant union organisations. As the partnership is not separately legally constituted the two Focus North core support staff (Programme Manager and Communications and Administration officer) are employed by individual partner organisations and as a result Focus North does not have separate Union recognition agreements.