The Highlands Green Freeport has unlocked £25 million in capital funding, prompting officials to unveil a ceremonial key so large that it requires its own berth, transport plan and emotional support officer.
The memorandum of understanding signed on 26 September brings together the UK and Scottish governments, Highland Council and the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport. It creates a formal framework for cooperation and unlocks capital funding for infrastructure at partner ports.
The money is intended to support port infrastructure for offshore wind and renewable energy. The announcement leaves everyone free to describe it as transformative while the actual transformation waits for planning permission, procurement and the traditional journey through several carefully labelled folders.
The Green Freeport projects more than 11,000 long term jobs and over £6.5 billion of investment across 25 years. The Institute of Long Term Numbers has placed both figures in a locked cabinet, where they can remain impressively large without being disturbed by anyone asking when they start.
“The Highlands have enormous potential,” said Angus, Keeper of Future Ready Employment. “We measured it in billions because metres would have made the ambition look worryingly close to the ground.”
The signing took place at Aurora Energy Services’ recently opened £1.2 million training facility in Inverness. The centre is expected to train more than 2,000 workers for the renewables sector each year, giving the future workforce somewhere to acquire the skills required by the future jobs promised by the future investment.
This is the particular magic of economic announcements. A funding agreement becomes a milestone, a projection becomes a workforce and a training centre becomes evidence that delivery has begun. The word “will” does nearly all the lifting, while the present tense stands nearby holding a clipboard.
Ports need infrastructure, renewable projects need skilled workers and projected prosperity eventually has to meet people, steel and weather. A presentation cannot assemble a turbine, however confidently its arrows point towards a Scottish sunset.
At the close of the event, the giant key was carried back to its display case. It was the first economic plan to leave the ceremony with a key, a queue and absolutely no door.
Real story: Freeport announcement, 26 September 2025, with later corroboration from Scotland Office, 27 September 2025.
