Cllr John Duff is the Leader of the Conservative Group on Perth and Kinross Council
Perth and Kinross, one of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas, is located in the heart of Scotland and renowned for its natural beauty. It combines a large part of the historic county of Perthshire with Kinross-shire and extends from the fertile lowlands of the Carse of Gowrie in the south to the mountains and glens of Highland Perthshire in the north. Tourism and hospitality play a large part in the economy, which also includes agriculture, food and drink production, forestry, and renewable energy. With a total Perth and Kinross population of around 150,000, retail, public services and businesses are centred on the city of Perth and several large towns. The local authority also embraces large rural and remote rural areas.
Food, drink, tourism and hospitality are the main drivers for economic growth in the area with Perth and Kinross being named the top local authority in the UK in 2026 for business growth potential for the second year running. This accolade, published in the Growth Outlook 26 report, recognises Perth and Kinross as one of the UK’s best destinations for investment and enterprise and follows the launch of our £530 million Investment Prospectus in 2025.
An example of an investment opportunity is the development at Perth West. Here, the Eco-Innovation Park forms part of our plans for a strategic, sustainable expansion of the city over 240ha involving low-carbon housing, industry, mobility and digital technology. Linking in with our Innovation Highway, a smart mobility corridor incorporating new road infrastructure, full fibre broadband and 5G connectivity, the Eco-Innovation Park will provide a commercial hub for companies driving change through innovation and smart technologies, a transport hub with electric, hydrogen and other low-carbon fuels with fuelling stops for coaches and HGVs and 3500 homes with neighbourhood centres, parks and schools.
Perth and Kinross is also currently benefiting from the Tay Cities Deal, a 10-year £300 million investment by the UK and Scottish Governments across Angus, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross Councils, which runs until March 2030. Projects already delivered in our area include the regeneration of Pitlochry Festival Theatre, the opening of Perth Museum, the implementation of Highspeed Broadband for Rural Perth and Kinross and the delivery of an International Barley Hub and Advanced Plant Growth Centre at the James Hutton Institute. To date, the Tay Cities Deal has secured £253 million of additional investment, created over 5,300 jobs, supported over 5,100 training places and unlocked nearly 25,000 sqm of development space.
The Perth and Kinross area is facing significant and unprecedented demographic and population changes. Since 2001, the population of Perth and Kinross has increased by 14.1 per cent (9.5 per cent for Scotland) with the 75 years and over age group increasing by 62.5 per cent during that time. Between 2022 and 2032, that same age group is forecast to rise by 29 per cent, the largest such growth predicted in Scotland. This has resulted in a substantially increased demand for complex care packages, home care and long-term residential care.
The rural geography of the local authority area adds to the pressure, and recent work has estimated that the hourly costs of delivering care at home in a rural setting is circa nine per cent higher than delivery within an urban locality. This rurality factor is not adequately recognised within the Scottish Government funding mechanism and, in addition, recent changes to the Grant Aided Expenditure allocations for local authorities in Scotland have been detrimental to social care funding in Perth and Kinross.
Despite Perth and Kinross Health and Social Care Partnership being one of the top performing partnerships in Scotland, this changing situation has required significant additional funding. With the Partnership having depleted its reserves, an additional £10 million had to be found to balance the social care budget in 2025/26. The projected future cost increases led to the Conservative Group successfully presenting a motion at Council in December 2025 declaring a Health and Social Care Emergency in Perth and Kinross.
Local authority elections take place across Scotland in May 2027, and the Scottish Conservatives will be fielding candidates in each of the twelve multi-member wards in Perth and Kinross seeking to regain the council from the current minority SNP administration. At present, the 40-member council is made up of 16 SNP, 12 Conservative, 6 Independents, 5 Lib Dems and one Labour Councillor. Scottish Parliament elections held in May have highlighted changes in voting patterns with increased voting for Reform and the Greens and losses for the Scottish Conservatives. More recently, in June, UK parliament by-elections in Scotland brought about great results for the Scottish Conservatives with Douglas Lumsden MP winning the Aberdeenshire South constituency from the SNP with a whopping 6,000 majority and the Conservatives achieving second place in the Arbroath and Broughty Ferry constituency ahead of Reform and Labour.
Consequently, there is everything to play for next May. Scottish Conservatives will continue to promote economic growth, business support, skills development and educational opportunities as the way to address the issues of poverty and the decline of our high streets and are keen to ensure that the 2027 local authority elections will see the return of a Conservative-led administration in Perth and Kinross.