The town whose council wants migrants to move in

A new shop opened along Greenock's fading High Street in May. Anik African Store has brought a small corner of Nigeria to the Scottish town, selling yams, plantain, okra and catfish.

It is not the only African food shop here - there is another just metres away, responding to the area's changing population.

Five years ago, locals say, it would have been rare to see a black person in Greenock. Now hundreds of Africans and refugees have moved to the area.

The local council has in fact come up with a plan to attract even more to this corner of the west of Scotland as a means of stemming its falling population.

Scottish people "are lovely and accommodating", says Anik's owner, Christianah Omilana, who came to the UK in 2021. "Immigrants will come when there is work", she adds.

The lack of work however has been a key driver of depopulation in Greenock and the wider Inverclyde area. No local authority in Scotland has been hit harder by population decline.

The number of residents in Inverclyde is 22,000 fewer than in 1981. And its current population, 78,000, is projected to fall by a further 16% over the next two decades.

Tackling the lack of people is the council's number one priority, by keeping more residents here and attracting others into the area.

It is a "lovely, friendly" town, says one of Anik's customers, Sunday, who has just moved here from Devon. He has begun a job at a hospital in Glasgow, and has come to Greenock to join his wife who works at the local hospital, Inverclyde Royal.

"If the local council can provide [jobs], everything in Greenock will change, because people [from Africa] would like to come," says Sunday.

Michael Buchanan and Adam Eley visited Greenock for the latest in a series of reports reflecting the range of challenges facing communities across the UK.

Most of Greenock's African population are working or studying in Glasgow or Paisley and have been attracted to the town by cheap housing. Many have arrived on skilled work visas, known as sponsorship, helping to bolster the health and care workforce.

Inverclyde Council's repopulation strategy is based on trying to encourage them to set down roots here, as well as attracting other legal migrants and people who've been granted refugee status to move in.

"It's a ghost town," says Tiffany, a mother of one, who we meet at a local parent and toddler group. "There's just nothing in it. There's nothing to do, there are no shops. There is no employment."