Tom Arthur: “Mirroring a trend seen in many countries around the world, Scotland has an ageing population and areas where the…”

While telecoms responsibility is reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government is acutely aware of the need to ensure people and businesses in rural areas can access good quality, reliable connectivity.

Applications are being considered for the latest funding round, with grants of up to £17 million due to be announced shortly.

This makes immigration ever more critical in ensuring we have working-age people to fill skills gaps, sustain public services, support communities and grow the economy.

It’s precisely why we are investing £600 million to roll out gigabit-capable broadband in some of the country’s hardest-to-reach communities through our R100 programme.