MORE than £4.5 million was invested in economic development in Moray during 2017/18 – an increase of £815,000 on the previous year. The Scottish Local Authorities Economic Development Group’s annual report on economic development performance went before Moray Council’s economic development and infrastructure services committee last Tuesday, highlighting the successes in Moray. During 2017/18, Moray
Council supported 71 businesses, including social enterprises, with grants and loans from programmes. Vacancy rates for town centre retail units in Elgin, Forres, Lossiemouth, Keith and Buckie have improved by two per cent since 2017, with 9.9 per cent of units unoccupied in these locations, against the Scottish average of 11.5 per cent. Meanwhile, three-year business survival rates show Moray is performing better than the Scottish average of 62.1 per cent, with 64.9 per cent of new business surviving past the three-year mark. Employability activities funded or operated by the council saw 716 unemployed people participate, up from 423 the year before. Chairman of the council’s economic development and infrastructure services committee, Councillor Graham Leadbitter, said: “I’m proud to showcase the many successes of our team and partners who are dedicated to economic development in Moray. “There are areas where we’re not performing as well against the Scottish average, for example our employment rate, but we benefit from sharing best practice among our network of senior economic development officials and we’ll use this to make improvements.”