Emma Roddick has quizzed the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Kate Forbes, on how her new Scottish Budget will address depopulation in the Highlands and Islands. Roddick said: “The drivers of depopulation range from infrastructure issues to wages and job opportunities, and internet connectivity to healthcare. “If we are serious about tackling depopulation in our rural [...]

Emma in Parliament delivering a speech about green lairds and their impact on the Scottish Highlands. SNP MSP Emma Roddick has welcomed a commitment in today’s Scottish Government’s budget statement to invest £831 million into affordable housing. Roddick, Scotland’s youngest MSP, has previously said tackling the housing crisis is her “top priority”. She claims short-term [...]

Highlands and Islands MSP Emma Roddick has argued in Parliament for consideration of the wider “causes of low footfall” when designing business support. In a debate on the Scotland Loves Local Fund, which recently paid out its first round of grants including £20,000 to Inverness and surrounding areas, she celebrated that this funding was “at [...]

SNP MSP Emma Roddick has urged residents of the Highlands and Islands to respond to the ongoing consultation on the fourth iteration of the National Planning Framework, which will set out Scotland’s development and infrastructure needs up to the year 2045. Commenting, Roddick said: “People only tend to object to or express support for proposed [...]

Emma Roddick MSP SNP MSP Emma Roddick has welcomed the news that teachers in Shetland are paid £1,350-a-year more than the UK average teaching salary. UK government figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the average annual salary for full-time Scottish teachers and other education professionals is £41,350. This compares with a UK average of just more than £40,000. That extra £1,350 for 329 [...]

Highlands and Islands MSP Emma Roddick today asked for reassurance that a full leadership team would be in place in NHS Grampian in order to deliver recommendations set out by a review into Moray maternity services published this week. She said: “There is a massive strength of opinion within Moray about this issue. It is [...]

Highlands and Islands MSP Emma Roddick is delighted with the announcement made today [29/11/21] by the Frist Minister regarding the doubling of the Scottish Child Payment. This much-needed additional support will be incorporated into the forthcoming budget and will be available to apply for from the start of the next financial year; April 2022. Roddick [...]

Highlands and Islands SNP MSP, Emma Roddick, has welcomed the announcement that projects in Inverness and its environs will receive £20,000 from the first round of grants from the Scotland Loves Local Fund. The funding, announced this week, is supporting over 100 organisations, who will receive a share of the £1.5 million funding boost to [...]

Emma Roddick MSP has emphasised the importance of promoting freight by rail in parliament today, questioning the Scottish Government on whether this had been fully considered in the development of the second phase of Strategic Transport Projects Review 2 (STPR2) which determines which transport projects in Scotland will be prioritised for funding. Roddick has been [...]

Highlands and Islands SNP MSP Emma Roddick has welcomed the Scottish Government’s new rollout of the Child Disability Payment which will help with financial support for families of children with a disability. For the first time anywhere in the UK, disability benefit applicants can apply for Child Disability Payment online, as well as by phone, [...]