Rachael Hamilton MSP hosted a Business Breakfast Summit last week in Kelso, which gave Borders’ businesses a chance to voice their concerns.
The aim of the Breakfast Summit was to encourage open dialogue about barriers to business expansion, problems with recruiting and retaining staff, anti-social behaviour and business rates.
Various businesses expressed their frustration at the lack of adequate transport links, poor rail services and skills shortages, which all impact on the viability and prosperity of their businesses.
Ms Hamilton agreed to take these points on board, raise them in Holyrood and keep up the pressure on the Transport Secretary/ScotRail on the poor performance of the Waverley Line.
Many delegates highlighted the skills gap in the Borders, which meant that various job positions were sitting vacant for long periods of time.
Ms Hamilton suggested that a starting point might be a Facebook group for businesses to share information and network with each other, with a view to improving digital and long distance learning so that people can live and study in the Borders.
Following on from the Business Breakfast, many agreed that promoting the Borders as an attractive place to live and do business should be a top priority.
Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire MSP, Rachael Hamilton said:
“Putting the Borders on the map should be a priority first and foremost.
“We need to encourage more skilled people to relocate here, and certainly one way would be to promote the area through the tourism board, and start a campaign to encourage more jobs and prosperity.
“I want to make sure that our young people stay in the Borders and those businesses can draw from the pool of talent to enhance their businesses.
“As ever, I will continue to push for a better service between Tweedbank and Edinburgh and for the dualling of the A1. Businesses deserve better road and rail links in order to get their products out of the Borders.
“I have taken the points raised on board and in the coming weeks, I will set out action points to establish where we can work out what the next steps are to improving the situation in the Borders”.