| Modern Scot - 13/08/2026 · Issue 010 |
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 | | Policy and Government · 13 August 2026 New Safety Guidance Issued for Nearly 500,000 Traditional Scottish Buildings The first major guidance of its kind in almost two decades follows lessons from the fatal Cameron House Hotel fire. New guidance has been published on converting Scotland's traditional buildings after concerns about fire safety, hidden structural features and the… |
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| | Energy · 13 August 2026 Community Renewable Energy Fund Increased to £15m a Year Scottish community groups are being offered more financial support to own renewable energy projects and reduce the running costs of local buildings. Funding available for community-owned renewable energy projects in Scotland is to increase to £15m a year. The Scottish… |
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| | Policy and Government · 13 August 2026 £1.5m announced to support Gaelic in designated communities The funding was announced as the second phase of the Cnoc Soilleir Gaelic cultural and education centre opened in South Uist. Scottish councils establishing designated areas of importance to the Gaelic language are to receive a share of £1.5m in… |
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| | Community · 13 August 2026 More than 8,800 households waiting for social housing in Highland Demand continues to outstrip the availability of homes across much of the Highlands, with Inverness accounting for a particularly large share of applications. More than 8,800 households are registered for social housing in Highland, with the supply of available homes… |
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| | Economy · 13 August 2026 Scotland revenues reach £98.3bn as fiscal deficit narrows Government revenues attributed to Scotland rose by £6.3bn in 2025-26, while the gap between estimated public spending and revenue narrowed to £25.3bn. Government revenues attributed to Scotland reached a record £98.3bn in 2025-26, according to the latest Government Expenditure and… |
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| | Economy · 13 August 2026 A Country Without Tellers: How Scotland Lost Its Banks In little more than a decade, Scotland has watched a familiar piece of civic life disappear from hundreds of communities. The story begins with quiet rationalisation, passes through mass closures and parliamentary revolt, and ends (for now) with a new… |
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| | Infrastructure · 11 August 2026 Some Scottish Sewer-Overflow Projects Move Into The 2030s As Regulators Question The Starting Line Minutes published in July reveal that Scottish Water, SEPA and the Scottish Government do not share the same understanding of the baseline for a national sewer-overflow improvement programme. The economic regulator is also asking why projects have moved into later… |
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| | Infrastructure · 11 August 2026 Dunfermline’s Northern Link Road Moves Towards Planning As £70m Road Programme Takes Shape Fife Council is preparing to seek planning permission for the first council-led section of a new strategic road across the north of Dunfermline. The scheme includes a new railway bridge, closure of a level crossing and a mixture of council-… |
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| | Transport · 11 August 2026 Scottish Bus Study Warns 2030 Electric Transition Could Push Rural Operators Out Scottish Ministers have powers to restrict newly registered non-zero-emission buses from local services from a date no earlier than 2030. But research commissioned by Transport Scotland found a clear consensus that the earliest date is too soon and warned that… |
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| | Economy · 10 August 2026 Scotland’s Power-Machinery Imports Jump 46% as Government Pushes Home-Grown Wind Manufacturing Power-generating machinery accounted for around two-fifths of the increase in Scotland’s goods imports in the year to March 2026. The statistics do not identify wind turbines specifically, but the rise comes as Scotland commits hundreds of millions of pounds to… |
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| | Environment · 10 August 2026 Scottish Government Said Wind-Farm Woodland Loss Was ‘Small’. FLS Says It Cannot Calculate It Forestry and Land Scotland has disclosed the individual developments associated with more than 8,600 hectares of forestry felling on Scotland’s national estate, but says it lacks complete restocking data and cannot calculate the resulting net woodland loss. Forestry and Land… |
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| | Energy · 10 August 2026 The £11 Million Rent Beneath Moray’s Wind and the 67 Turbines That Could Follow Court papers exposed an index-linked £6 million minimum rent at Dorenell Wind Farm; subsequent reporting found the land payment had reached about £11 million a year. Now a much larger extension is under consultation in Moray, as Scotland considers raising… |
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| | Heritage and Arts · 9 August 2026 Old Scottish Fisheries – A Scotland Once Described By Its Fish FIRST PUBLISHED IN 2016Long before oil, whisky or tourism became shorthand for Scottish wealth, foreign visitors and Scotland’s own chroniclers repeatedly remarked upon something much more elemental: the extraordinary abundance of fish in the country’s rivers, lochs and surrounding seas.… |
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| | Heritage and Arts · 11 August 2026 Bessie Bell And Mary Gray: The Evidence Behind Perthshire’s Plague Ballad FIRST PUBLISHED IN 2015 For centuries, Bessie Bell and Mary Gray have been remembered as two young Perthshire women who tried to escape the plague by hiding in the countryside, only to die together. Their grave is still marked beside… |
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| | Heritage and Arts · 13 August 2026 The Men Who Came to Take Lewis In 1598, James VI granted a group of Lowland landowners sweeping rights over Lewis. They came with soldiers, craftsmen and plans for a plantation. The island already had inhabitants, its own rulers and no intention of quietly changing hands. In… |
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| | Featured · 9 August 2026 American Coffee and Other Emergencies I was back at the wee fish shop somewhere between Thurso and Scrabster last Thursday, minding my own business, as I generally am when other people happen to be speaking loudly enough for me to hear them. Effie was standing… |
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