Clinging to housing ladder

Most Shetlanders in their 20s are faced with the decision of whether or not to move home after completing their rite of passage on the mainland, and – luckily for the community – many choose to return to their roots, sacrificing a lot in the process to do so.

It appears that the recent oil and gas boom has hyper-inflated living costs to a level that would have the most bourgeois of folks, spitting out their Earl Grey in horror at some of the prices being touted. Along with the continuing lack of social housing available (if you can prove that you’re worthy of enough “points” in the first place, that is), how can young Shetlanders begin to think about starting their new lives at home?

Numerous stories have emerged of situations where young people have had their leases on their homes terminated, only to discover that their beds have been filled by these oil companies at the price of an arm and a leg – in not too dissimilar a manner to the Highland Clearances. I wonder what our ancestors would think? Call me melodramatic, but surely pricing a generation out of our community could prove devastating to the future of our isles, both culturally and economically.

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I hope if subsequent construction projects are given the go-ahead up north, and we do witness another influx of workers, lessons will have been learned and the council will take action to strike a deal with the oil giants that will benefit the entire community, not just a select few – thus preventing our younger folk from being marginalised again – because, as the old rhetoric that we’ve heard so much of in recent weeks highlights, “the oil winna last forever”.

Shane Ritch

Lerwick