大象传媒

Viewed from Inverness, the north-south divide doesn't look good for Glasgow.

Economic consultant Tony Mackay spends much of his time in the Highland capital. From that vantage point, he's taken a close look at Clydeside's economic performance in his latest bulletin, and doesn't much rate what he sees.

Whereas the data shows Glasgow had a growth rate significantly ahead of the Scottish average five years ago, that lead has been wiped out.

The city's unemployment rate has risen at a much faster rate than the Scottish average (allowing for question marks over the sampling size): over the past year, it's been up 8.5%, while the Scottish figure is up 2.3%.

"These are very depressing statistics," says Mackay, before he goes on to dwell on de-population.

And there's a swipe at the public sector, not only for being so dominant (it's more important to Glasgow than to Edinburgh, the government centre) but also for the city council and Scottish Enterprise "glossing over" the city's problems, while simultaneously "sticking their heads in the sand".

There's a claim of a lack of reality and objectivity in these public sector bodies. And criticism that the private sector job creation has been in low value added call centre and retail jobs.

Uist headquarters

This chimes with question marks hanging over public sector support for economic regeneration. Holyrood's economy committee is returning this morning to its inquiry into the future of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and the role of councils using their economic powers.

In submissions so far, public agencies and councils claim to be working well together. They would, wouldn't they?

There's more unhappiness about the dominance of Inverness in the mindset of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, particularly from the Western Isles.

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, the islands council, wants to take over the HIE powers. Or if it's to remain in control, the council says it should relocate its headquarters to South Uist - an area in most need of economic support. Orkney is unimpressed by the alleged Moray Firth bias as well.

Meanwhile, Glasgow is staking its claim to take on more economic powers. As the largest local authority in population and spend, it reckons it has what it takes to make its own economic future.

Tony Mackay would seem to disagree. And in a telling contribution from the Scottish Local Authorities Economic Development Group (SLAED), including the officials who have taken on the local regeneration role from local enterprise companies, changes in role over the past three years have been woefully underfunded.

"It is clear that there has been a reduction in local regeneration activities across Scotland since the abolition of the LECs," it says.

In 2009-10, that meant a transfer of a paltry 拢3.9m - "significantly less than the LECs were able to invest in this activity prior to their abolition".

Challenging relations

The local authorities see Scottish Enterprise as failing to keep a pipeline of projects flowing, even on national projects.

"It is clear that fewer new projects have been instigated than might have been in the past, while other projects have stalled or have since been considered lower priority, as the available budget for both Scottish Enterprise and the local authorities has been constrained for such regeneration activities," says SLAED.

A similar charge is levelled at Skills Development Scotland. It took on Scottish Enterprise's training role in the same programme of reforms announced in 2007. But councils say it's far from easy to work with SDS - the euphemism is "challenging" - and resources have been squeezed.

Joint working is based on what's gone before - not on new ways of working and new proposals, it is claimed.

Some of the shortcomings of the new training regime have been addressed in the new strategy set out this week by the Scottish government. It recognises that too much training is being done without being allied to what employers actually need.

And all this while Scottish Enterprise/the Scottish Government fail to find a new boss for their joint overseas promotions division, Scottish Development International.

The failure to find a suitable candidate earlier this year, before re-advertising, doesn't fill you full of confidence for the current team in charge.

That adds up to a lot of "challenges" around the public sector's economic development support for the private sector. It's at a time when both sectors have plenty more challenges in the pipeline.