Highland communities have seen and heard the Highland Council and their cheerleaders wheeling out the so-called Social Value Charter for Renewable Energy; being loudly promoted as a “pioneering framework” and a “9-point plan” to deliver fair benefits from renewable energy investment across the Highlands. Let’s be clear: what has been published is not a credible plan, not a realistic set of commitments, and certainly not a binding guarantee that Highland communities will see anything other than another round of empty promises. It is even being touted as a case study for Just Transition!
At its core the Charter is a values-based agreement, essentially a list of aspirations that developers are “expected” to align with. There is no statutory force, no enforcement mechanism, and no clear, independently verifiable standards. It amounts to little more than a set of headings and buzzwords wrapped up in glossy language about “inclusive benefits” and “community wealth building”.
Let’s unpack what’s really on offer here:
A voluntary framework on paper does not guarantee real outcomes.
The Highland Council admits the Charter is non-statutory and entirely dependent on parties acting in good faith. In plain language, developers don’t have to comply with this Charter to get planning approval or build infrastructure. They can and no doubt will simply sign up for publicity, but there’s nothing that holds them to account beyond vague expectations.
It’s mostly spin dressed up as substance.
Yes, the Charter lists “community funds”, a “strategic fund”, shared investment, skills and training, and so on. But these are general concepts, not commitments. There is no timeline, no measurable targets, no penalties and no transparency about how these funds will be managed, audited or delivered. What the Highland Council has actually done is produce a shopping list of ideals, not a robust plan with teeth.
SSEN’s sign-up says nothing useful.
The recent announcement that SSEN Transmission is the first business to sign up to the Charter has been treated by the Council as some sort of landmark “win”. Of course SSEN signed. They are responsible for the very grid upgrades that are driving the expansion of renewables in the Highlands; the same upgrades that are enabling schemes which local people have repeatedly said are being rammed through with little real benefit to host communities.
Look closely at what SSEN claims to commit to. Their list comprises aspirational investments over many years, most of which reflect what they would be doing anyway as part of their infrastructure programmes;- jobs, local contracts, housing investment, road works. There’s no guarantee that Highland communities will see any of these before decisions are taken, or that the promised amounts won’t be eroded by project cost variations. And there is no independent enforcement of these commitments outside of SSEN’s own reporting.
The council’s own documents show the Charter’s limits
In internal planning reports and committee papers, the Council repeatedly stresses that this is a framework to support discussions with developers, not a binding requirement. It is essentially a negotiation tool rather than a vehicle for delivering community power or shared ownership. In other words, it’s something to talk about, not something that delivers.
Highland already produces more energy than it needs and sees little benefit
Any honest observer will acknowledge that the Highlands generates vast quantities of renewable electricity, much of which is exported out of the region, raising huge profits for private companies and contributing to targets set by governments far removed from local needs. Yet communities still face housing shortages, fuel poverty, grid bottlenecks, and economic leakage. The Charter doesn’t fix this underlying imbalance, it merely acknowledges it and offers hopeful phrases about “shared returns”.
Highland communities see through this spin
People across the Highlands are not impressed. The Charter’s language tries to dress up broad principles as a “9-point plan” but scratch beneath the surface and what you find is a set of buzzwords, not binding guarantees. There is absolutely nothing in the document that compels developers to deliver shared ownership, community control, or transparent reinvestment of value here rather than elsewhere.
If Highland Council genuinely wanted to shift power and resources into the hands of local communities, they would be pursuing statutory community benefit requirements, enforceable local content rules, transparent monitoring and reporting, and community co-ownership mandates tied to planning consents. Instead, we have a glossy brochure. That is spin. And in a region being reshaped by massive energy infrastructure programmes, empty spin is not good enough.
