MY HOPES FOR 2022: Trudy Morris, chief executive of Caithness Chamber of Commerce
Caithness Chamber of Commerce believes local businesses will be well placed to take advantage of developments in renewable energy and the space sector in 2022 and beyond.
“Announcements should be made about new investments in offshore wind, and further progress made on the Space Hub Sutherland project, bringing a range of opportunities for the local supply chain,” the chamber’s chief executive Trudy Morris said.
She added: “As we have learned, when it comes to Covid there is no predicting what the future will hold. However, we hope that we will find a better way of dealing with Covid and that local businesses will not only survive this latest wave but flourish in the new year.
“The idea of ‘business as usual’ may have changed but we hope that, whatever the post-Covid landscape looks like, we will also take some of the lessons learned and the community spirit that we have all found over the past couple of years and use that to build a brighter future for the region.
“The sustainability agenda has had to take a back seat over the past two years, for obvious reasons, but we hope that 2022 will allow businesses to begin moving forward again with work to make themselves and their communities more sustainable.
“We also hope that our governments will listen carefully to businesses as they progress with this vital issue, ensuring that economic and environmental sustainability are not treated as separate issues but rather as two sides of the same coin.”
A report commissioned by Caithness Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership analysed the likely economic impact of the north Sutherland spaceport and predicted it would bring massive employment and tourism benefits not just to the far north but to the wider Highlands and Moray. It is anticipated that the space station will lay the foundation for a Northern Space Cluster, which could bring as many as 740 jobs to the Highlands and Islands and boost the region’s economy by £56 million a year by the end of this decade.
Meanwhile, the developers of the Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Farm – to be located around six kilometres north-west of Dounreay – have said it is “all to play for” in terms of manufacturing and other opportunities.
