Highlands & Islands Labour Candidate Rhoda Grant Calls on the BBC to Relocate Jobs to the Region

By theorkneynews on April 3, 2021

Labour candidate in the Highlands and Islands Regional List, Rhoda Grant, has called for the BBC to decentralise jobs to the region.

Earlier this month the BBC announced that is was to move some of its key departments and staff outside London ‘to make the corporation more reflective of the UK as a whole.’

Commenting, Rhoda Grant said:

“The decentralisation of jobs by the BBC in London is a very welcome one, however, moving jobs out of London to Glasgow fails to support smaller sites such as the BBC office in Inverness.

“It’s clear to me that BBC Scotland and the organisation as a whole should also now seek to move jobs out of Glasgow and not only secure the future of BBC sites in the Highlands and Islands, but to actually bring jobs closer to our local communities and away from the central belt.

“We have the opportunity to bring more jobs and employment to the region as we recover from Covid-19 and decentralising jobs and creating opportunities in the Highlands and Islands must be at the heart of our national recovery plan.”

The BBC described the plan as a “top-to-bottom change” and its biggest transformation in decades.

As a result of the changes, entire departments and news divisions will be moved to Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, Glasgow and Salford.

Recently, smaller BBC outposts including at the Inverness base in the Highland capital have seen job losses or relocations to the central belt.

Rhoda Grant has written to BBC Scotland Director, Steve Carson, to ask for as many roles as possible from the relocation to be moved out of Glasgow and into the Highlands and Islands.

The candidates standing in the Orkney Constituency for the Scottish Parliament Elections on Thursday May 6th are: