The Scottish Affairs Committee wants to hear opinions on problems facing the Borderlands of Scotland.

Following a series of scoping meetings in Galashiels, Peebles and Dumfries earlier this year the Scottish Affairs Committee feels the south of Scotland region has been consistently overlooked and inadequately served by successive governments.

And they have launched an extensive consultation process on the back of a report, published this week.

Chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee, Ian Davidson MP, said: “Our initial visits to the Borderlands, with what we knew already, told us that people in the South of Scotland are not getting as good a deal as they should.

“Centralisation into Edinburgh undermines the ability of local people to control their own lives and the lack of any development support similar to that provided in the north of Scotland limits social and economic regeneration opportunities.

“We hope our enquiry, together with our report and the consensus that we would hope to build, will bring about a fairer deal for the Borderlands.” The series of fact-finding meetings earlier this year highlighted problems around the decline in Scottish Enterprise’s influence, youth unemployment, low wages, under employment, poor transport and problems attracting European funding.

Amongst the suggested considerations is changing the boundaries for Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics to pair the Borders with Dumfries and Galloway as well as Northumberland and Cumbria.

It is believed current NUTS boundaries mask the problems in both of the Scottish borderland local authority regions.

And it is believed that joined-up working can mirror success achieved by an initiative in the Highlands.

A Scottish Affairs spokesman said: “The Committee’s initial research included scoping visits to the region, held in Galashiels, Peebles and Dumfries, which identified a series of issues, many replicating those experienced by areas of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland but also shared with the North of England.” The select committee at Westminster is inviting written submissions and views on the current structures, how central and local governance can improve, the root causes of under employment, unemployment and low wages.

This week’s report stated: “While we have been aware for quite some time of successful campaigns being run in the Highlands and Islands to promote the interest of those regions – for example, the Our Islands – Our Future campaign - we were struck by the complete absence of any parallel campaign with an equally high profile in the south of Scotland.

“We therefore decided to hold informal seminars in Galashiels, Peebles and Dumfries in order to identify key issues facing businesses, communities and individuals in the south of Scotland.

“Several of the issues raised in those meetings focused on the social and economic needs of the residents of the south of Scotland, many of which related to devolved functions which are the responsibility of the Scottish Government or to matters which are more appropriately dealt with by local authorities.

“However, some crucial issues were raised which were a direct consequence of the policies and responsibilities of the UK Government, specifically for example, in relation to employment issues.

“Furthermore, and to a greater extent than expected, we were also told that many issues which affect the border areas in the south of Scotland also impact upon the border areas of the north of England. We decided to launch this inquiry in order to explore all of these issues in more detail.” Views can be submitted to the committee until Monday, September 1.