Transform Scotland (of which FoFNL is a member) published a new report in November 2024 with the tagline: "How to generate revenue for sustainable transport in Scotland". Ideas For Investment seeks to identify means beyond direct funding, which is in extremely short supply following the real-term reduction in Scotland's block grant, and the Scottish Government's severe limitations on borrowing for capital projects.

The report was followed by a webinar with three speakers:

• Dr Karen Barrass on climate bonds
• Sue Flack on innovative parking strategies
• Dr George Hazel on land value capture

The talk by Dr Hazel was especially relevant to railway projects and demands both our attention and that of The Highland Council, as well as the Scottish Government and Transport Scotland.

Dr Hazel described how his organisation, E-Rail, of which he is a Director, promotes Land Value Capture (LVC) which was deployed successfully in the Northumberland Line Project. This saw Contribution Agreements executed with landowners on 21 sites and raised an estimated £30m - £40m towards the capital cost of the project. The 18 mile line was still in use for freight and now has six stations.

Put simply, LVC identifies the likely increase in land values near the project once it is completed, and agrees with developers a contribution of around 50% of that increase.

From our perspective we can see that opening a station would increase the potential value of nearby land for house building and/or commercial or industrial use.

In terms of land values the cost of building a station is relatively small, despite Network Rail's reputation for surprisingly high price tags. There may be opportunities on the Far North Line for LVC - reopening Evanton Station springs to mind. Perhaps there will also be opportunities to deploy LVC as part of the future Inverness Station redevelopment.

The report is well worth a read in its entirety.

The slides from the webinar are also available.