JOHN Swinney is facing calls to take action to support one of Scotland’s smallest council areas after it was hit by the cumulative loss of around 1500 jobs.
The First Minister will visit Inverclyde on Monday after being invited by the local authority to see the economic challenges facing the area.
It comes after Inverclyde Council warned it is “under pressure” following a series of job losses, alongside decades of deindustrialisation and population decline.
Council leader Stephen McCabe has called on the Scottish Government to treat Inverclyde as a priority and provide additional support to help attract new employers.
Swinney is expected to meet local politicians, a community group and managers at the nationalised Ferguson Marine shipyard during his visit.
It comes a week after Ferguson Marine announced plans which could see around a quarter of its workforce made redundant.
According to BBC Scotland News, other employers which have cut jobs in the area in recent years include IBM, Amazon, BPI Berry, EE, Cigna International Health, RBS and Kyndryl.
McCabe, who leads a minority Labour administration, said the cumulative impact of the losses had not received the same level of political attention as major individual jobs crises elsewhere in Scotland.
He told the BBC: “We've now lost 1500 to 1800 jobs.
“For an area the size of Inverclyde that's the equivalent of 15,000 in Glasgow.”
Inverclyde has a population of around 78,000, which has fallen by around a fifth over the past 50 years.
The area was once a major centre of shipbuilding, engineering and sugar refining, but has suffered from the decline of traditional industries and the subsequent loss of other major employers.
McCabe said ministers should respond to the situation in a similar way to previous interventions following job losses at Grangemouth and bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis.
He said: “It's time for the Scottish Government to recognise that Inverclyde is a priority.
“We've seen how they responded to other jobs crises in the likes of Grangemouth and Alexander Dennis at Falkirk.
“They need to recognise the jobs that we've lost is so significant that there needs to be special support.”
A socio-economic taskforce established four years ago has previously put forward around £70 million of regeneration proposals for the area.
A £24m redevelopment of central Greenock, largely funded through UK Government Levelling Up money, is currently under way, while around £11m of public funding has been spent upgrading facilities at Inchgreen Marine Park.
A further £20m has recently been pledged through the UK Government's Growth Mission Fund to repair the Inchgreen dry dock and establish a maritime training centre.
