Annex I: Sum­mary of sum­mer engage­ment pro­gramme on the Eco­nom­ic Action Plan

1. Back­ground

To sup­port the con­sulta­tion the CNPA Con­vener and Deputy Con­vener spent sev­en days out in the Park, meet­ing and vis­it­ing busi­nesses along with loc­ally elec­ted mem­bers and seni­or staff. The vis­its focused on the main set­tle­ments and included New­ton­more, Kin­gussie, Aviemore, Grant­own, Tomin­toul, Brae­mar and Bal­later. In total, mem­bers met dir­ectly with over 45 busi­nesses includ­ing sev­er­al sig­ni­fic­ant employ­ers (e.g. Cairngorms Brew­ery, McGowan’s, Wil­der­ness Scot­land, Russ­woods, Fife Arms Hotel, Hilton, and High­land Wild­life Park) and with man­agers and front-line staff in many small shops and premises.

2. Sum­mary of what was heard

Over­all, the issues were not identic­al across the Park and the emphas­is of con­ver­sa­tions was dis­tinct in dif­fer­ent loc­a­tions and busi­ness sec­tors. How­ever, com­mon themes included:

a) Avail­ab­il­ity of hous­ing for work­ers b) Trans­port chal­lenges – espe­cially related to staff on shift work in a tour­ism eco­nomy c) Busi­ness Rates d) Winter eco­nomy – the chal­lenges of keep­ing work­ers employed in winter peri­od e) Ski centres — fra­gil­ity; need for invest­ment and diver­si­fic­a­tion; equity of approach f) Town Centres – chan­ging shop­ping habits, the pop­ular­ity of small inde­pend­ent shops with vis­it­ors g) Land rents and the degree of con­trol by lim­ited num­ber of people in some areas h) The chal­lenges of secur­ing com­mer­cial lend­ing and invest­ment i) Attract­ing and retain­ing staff j) Chan­ging expect­a­tions of young people about work and life­style k) Brexit — espe­cially the poten­tial implic­a­tions of secur­ing staff for vis­it­or eco­nomy and small busi­nesses l) Train­ing and skills – ongo­ing need for invest­ment m) Digit­al con­nectiv­ity – espe­cially an issue in the more rur­al parts of the Park but, even close to set­tle­ments, con­nectiv­ity could be very poor n) Main­ten­ance of infra­struc­ture, espe­cially in vis­it­or eco­nomy – and espe­cially toi­lets! o) The import­ance of young people – many employ­ers had already taken steps to encour­age and devel­op young people and were will­ing to do more p) The chal­lenge of deliv­er­ing pro­jects due to com­plex pro­cesses – busi­nesses need invest­ment, lead­er­ship and simple con­sents regimes q) The need for col­lab­or­a­tion at village/​town scale and the challenges/​oppor­tun­it­ies for Busi­ness Asso­ci­ation r) Busi­ness sup­port – very mixed ser­vice and not much there for very small scale and start-ups s) Encour­aging vis­it­ors passing by to stop and spend time and money

CNPA, Novem­ber 2019