Grants of more than £320,000 have been approved to encourage people and business to move to Argyll and Bute.
The council project is to be cancelled though, after 157 new residents relocated – but no businesses.
A report this week reveals that 111 adults and 46 children have moved to the council area with the support of the rural resettlement fund, with Helensburgh and Lomond seeing the smallest number of new residents – 16 people.
The council has been struggling to combat a falling population and allocated £500,000 to the fund when it was launched last year.
But the policy and resources committee will hear tomorrow that Instagram and Facebook marketing campaigns reached over 20,000 people with interests in outdoor activities and working mainly in healthcare.
A report by executive director of development and infrastructure services Pippa Milne adds that the project had occupied more time for council staff than expected: “To date the dissemination of the fund has in the main only attracted individuals being in receipt of the personal relocation grant and five self-employment grants.
“The fund has attracted a high number of enquiries that has involved more staff resource than anticipated over and above current workloads.
“The fund has generated positive publicity for the council and provided a small increase in the population with a number of positive case studies generated on moving to Argyll and Bute.”
It suggested that the incentive of £10,000 was not enough to entice businesses which had been trading for at least two years to move to the area.
A total of £161,975 has been paid out so far, but the total of grants awarded is £324,948.
I thought the population round here was shooting up because of the base? So why pay people from our taxes? And if it’s so hard to persuade people to come here, why allow so many houses to be built?
I can think of several local businesses which could probably use a £10,000 grant to hire and train new staff to enable them to grow in size.