HIE Shetland is to share accommodation with Shetland Islands Council, and Careers Scotland with Job Centre Plus, for three months until the completion of their new shared services office, scheduled for the end of March 2008.

Ann Black area director of HIE Shetland said: "We are confident that our usual service to clients and the community will continue with minimum of interruption or inconvenience in the period before we relocate to our new offices. Thank you to everyone who has been involved in setting up this interim arrangement at such short notice.

Neil Grant interim head of economic development at Shetland Islands Council
said: "We are pleased to have provided an accommodation solution in the North Ness office for our partner agency. We already work closely with the HIE Shetland team and sharing the office for a while will help us to understand each others operations that bit better."

Job Centre Plus officer in charge Hubert Hunter added: "We already work in partnership with Careers Scotland on a regular basis and this will be business as usual for us. I see this as an excellent opportunity to extend a helping hand to a partner agency."