COLIN MARR: What does restoration of Westminster have to do with Highlands?

A few days ago I had the privilege of chairing an event in Inverness Town House on behalf of The Palace of Westminster Restoration and Renewal Project.

You’ve probably heard about the project. The Palace – which includes the UK Houses of Parliament and Big Ben – is in a poor state of repair and offers few of the services needed for modern government.

The work required to bring it up to date, while preserving the heritage of the building, will be one of the longest and most expensive projects ever seen in the UK, and will be subject to intense public scrutiny. But what does this have to do with us in the Highlands?

Well, potentially it presents us with an enormous opportunity.

Sadly the Westminster team’s flight from Gatwick was cancelled. That’s becoming an all too common issue and is one that I’ll explore here another day. But fortunately that presents less of an issue nowadays and we were still able to have a rich and engaging discussion.

We heard from the team about the skills and equipment they need – everything from heritage stone and metal workers, to modern mechanical and electrical engineers and equipment, along with the skills to install that modern equipment unobtrusively into one of the most famous buildings in the world.

From the Highlands we had building contractors, trades people, architects and project managers along with representatives from training and skills development.

We have many of the skills that Westminster requires in the Highlands. It is essential that we benefit from the enormous spend that is going to happen and that those benefits are not just seen in London. The project will take so long to complete that there are opportunities for apprentices to end up as master builders over the duration. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a few Highlanders on the project who can then come back here so we can benefit from their knowledge?

This was just the first meeting, and there are more visits planned. But it was a fantastically positive start.

Colin Marr is chief executive of Inverness Chamber of Commerce.