Plan to offer young people £50,000 to move to Scottish islands scrapped

Islands bond idea, dismissed as election gimmick' by critics, found to be unpopular with islanders

Controversial proposals to offer a 50,000 welcome grant to encourage more young people and families to stay on or move to Scottish islands have been scrapped after a consultation found that islanders themselves did not believe the scheme was the right way to tackle depopulation.

The Scottish government announced that the proposed islands bond, which was dismissed as a gimmick by critics and attracted initial inquiries from as far afield as Ecuador, would not go ahead after an analysis of consultation responses found that those in favour of it were largely non-islanders.