INVERKEITHING has the lowest percentage of vacant units than any other town centre in Fife.

Despite a slight increase in the last 12 months, it was found to have 9.4 per cent of units empty compared to Dunfermline's figure of 20.8 per cent and 28.8 per cent in Kirkcaldy.

There was also improvement for Kincardine, which recorded 16.7 per cent of vacant units in the last 12 months.

Members of Fife Council's South and West area committee were given an update on the local area economic profiles at their meeting last Wednesday.

The report from Fife Council lead officer (economy) Peter Corbett said the area, like all over Fife and the rest of the country, had suffered ongoing economic impact and uncertainty resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic and recent UK exit from the European Union.

Councillors heard that the employment rate in the South and West Fife area was at 62.8 per cent which was "considerably lower" than the Fife and Scottish averages.

Male employment (67.3 per cent) was higher than the area's female employment rate of 58.9 per cent.

However, the claimant rate in South and West Fife (3.4 per cent) was the second-lowest in Fife but saw the third-highest increase between 2019 and November 2021 with a rise of 0.7 per cent.

Between September 2019 and September 2020, the number of jobs in South and West Fife fell from 17,000 to 16,000.

After hearing the report, Dalgety Bay and Inverkeithing councillor David Barratt asked what work was happening between parties to bring development plans in the area to fruition.

"I am thinking, in particular in Inverkeithing, the papermill site," he said. "We have an owner who wants to develop it and a council who want it to be developed but so far the two are not matching up."

Lead officer Andrew Sim said they were working to help promote development.

"We are starting to get some traction with Transport Scotland about rail infrastructure and I think that will begin to unlock sites around Inverkeithing, and places like Longannet and in Rosyth as well," he said.

"We will promote development benefits where appropriate but at the moment it is a case of dealing with these sites on their merits."