Scottish Rural Communities Policy Review: stage 2 - review of policy and delivery context

2. Rural policy developments

Evolving agriculture and rural communities legislation – the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024 and Rural Support Plan

Since the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU) in the 2016 referendum, governments in all four nations have been working to design their agricultural and rural policies and programmes to replace the Common Agricultural Policy.

The most recent legislative development in Scotland saw the passing of the Agriculture and Rural Communities Bill by the Scottish Parliament on 18 June 2024, becoming an Act on 30 July 2024^[3]. The Bill was a commitment in the Scottish Government’s 2023-24 Programme for Government^[4], to provide powers to replace the EU’s agricultural and rural development policies and programmes.

The Act gives the Scottish Government powers to provide support to agriculture and rural communities, and provides the overarching framework for that support.

The Act sets out the Scottish Government’s general principles for future agriculture policy:

a) the adoption and use of sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices,

b) the production of high-quality food,

c) the promotion and support of agricultural practices that protect and improve animal health and welfare,

d) the facilitation of on-farm nature restoration, climate mitigation and adaptation, and

e) enabling rural communities to thrive.

The Act requires Scottish Ministers to produce a Rural Support Plan which will set out the Government’s priorities for a five year period, and associated secondary legislation to guide wider rural policy. There is little detail available as yet on what the Rural Support Plan will contain^[5].

The Rural Delivery Plan

In a policy prospectus published in April 2023 (‘Equality, opportunity, community, New leadership: A fresh start’^[6]), former First Minister Humza Yousaf MSP announced that the Scottish Government would publish a Rural Delivery Plan by 2026 (the end of the current Parliament), to show:

“…how all parts of the Scottish Government are delivering for rural Scotland. As well as policies on agriculture, land reform, marine, and our Islands Plan, this will cover areas such as transport, housing, social justice, repopulation, digital connectivity and economic development.”

The Rural Delivery Plan will set out the actions that the Scottish Government is and will be taking which impact mainland rural communities, placing a new focus on rural delivery with the intention of identifying gaps in investment and reprioritising resources to address these gaps if needed. This commitment to publish a Rural Delivery Plan was reiterated in the Scottish Government’s 2023-2024 Programme for Government^[7]. Work to develop the Rural Delivery Plan has been ongoing by the delivery team in Scottish Government since then, with a Ministerial Working Group set up in June 2023^[8] and a Rural Stakeholder Group.

The Scottish Government conducted a survey on the Rural Delivery Plan in February-March 2025. This noted that:

“The Rural Delivery Plan will act as a framework to consider the full breadth of policy delivery in the rural space; it is an opportunity to bring together often siloed areas of interest and consider what is happening holistically.”

The Plan will set out a vision for rural Scotland, a series of strategic objectives and related key performance indicators setting out the basis for understanding progress against the objectives. The Scottish Government notes that the Rural Delivery Plan will build on previous work, including the National Council of Rural Advisers recommendations (in 2018^[9]) and the outputs from the Scottish Rural and Island Parliaments in 2021 and 2023 (see section below).

The main output from the 2021 Scottish Rural and Island Parliament was the Manifesto for Rural and Island Scotland^[10], which called for a vision and policy framework for rural Scotland^[11]. The 2023 event culminated in the ‘Last Dance’ workshop which brought together the views of stakeholders in attendance to create a rural lens approach, including a framework for designing rural and island policy and service interventions^[12]. This approach aims to embed rural expertise across all stages of policy development and implementation, and is refined through continuous review.

The Rural Delivery Plan explicitly applies to mainland rural communities in Scotland, and not to island communities which are supported through the Scottish Government’s National Islands Plan.

National Islands Plan and Islands Community Impact Assessments

Following the passing of the 2018 Islands (Scotland) Act, the Scottish Government published its first National Islands Plan in December 2019^[13]. The Plan sets out a framework for action to improve outcomes for Scotland’s island communities. The Plan includes 13 Strategic Objectives relating to a wide range of issues, including population change (the issue that was the top priority identified by respondents during the consultation on the Plan), digital connectivity, housing, transport, fuel poverty, education, climate change and energy, empowered island communities, and strong local partnerships. Progress on achieving these objectives is reported on an annual basis by the Scottish Government^[14]. The first National Islands Plan is currently under review (a statutory obligation every five years), with a new Plan currently being drafted.

In Autumn 2020, just under one year after the publication of the first National Islands Plan, the first Scottish Islands Survey was sent to 20,000 residents across Scotland’s (permanently inhabited) islands^[15]. The objective of the survey was to improve understanding about living on Scotland’s islands and to gather baseline data against which to measure the success of the Plan. Over 4,300 people responded to the survey from 59 islands (a response rate of 22%) and a range of issues were raised including support for young people, employment, education and training provision, childcare, healthcare services, digital connectivity and the inability of infrastructure to meet tourism demand.

The data from the survey confirmed the need for future recommendations or policies to recognise that life is different in each island group and that different age groups have distinct experiences of island life. Therefore, tailoring to each island group and different age groups is appropriate.

A second Scottish Islands Survey was carried out in 2023, with the report of the findings published in 2024^[16]. Again a 22% response rate was achieved (with 20,000 surveys sent out) across 66 islands. Key findings from the survey include the variety of experiences of island life (including within island groupings), in relation to issues such as accessing affordable housing, education provision and digital and transport infrastructure. A comparison of the 2020 and 2023 results showed a decline in island residents’ perceptions of public transport, housing availability, fuel poverty and sense of community. More positively, access to fast internet connections and participation in community events have increased and young people are more likely to say they will stay in their island in the medium term.

Variations are also observed in terms of responses across different age groups, with young people (18-35) least satisfied with current housing and availability of housing options and reporting lower mental wellbeing, but feeling more empowered when it comes to influencing the decisions made by community organisations.

The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 also established a duty on public authorities to undertake Islands Community Impact Assessments (ICIAs) in relation to new policies, strategies and interventions. Islands Community Impact Assessments explore whether these new policies are likely to have different impacts in different island communities and between island and mainland communities. Guidance and a toolkit have been produced^[17] but this exercise has not yet been formally evaluated.

The Rural Lens Toolkit

In December 2022 the Scottish Government committed to apply a rural lens to projects funded as part of the National Strategy for Economic Transformation^[18]. Rural policy officials took on the responsibility of developing guidance for this process across the Scottish Government, with a Rural Lens Toolkit being piloted with several policy teams in the Scottish Government in 2024-25. The Rural Assessment Toolkit was launched across government in early April 2025.

In a press release accompanying the publication of Scotland’s Rural College’s Rural and Islands Insights Report 2023^[19], funded by the Scottish Government through its Strategic Research Programme 2022-27, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands Mairi Gougeon emphasised that the Rural Delivery Plan “will ensure that a rural lens is applied to all ongoing policy.”

Since 2007 and the introduction of the National Performance Framework^[20], the Scottish Government’s approach to rural issues has been one of mainstreaming, or adapting policies to meet local needs rather than setting rural Scotland aside as something different. In 2018, the National Council of Rural Advisers called for rural issues to be embedded across all policies and the subsequent establishment of the Rural Economy Action Group was seen as the means to ensure that this happened systematically, including through achieving a better understanding and promotion of the rural economy in national economic plans and industry-led strategies^[21].

This non-mandatory commitment to mainstreaming and to apply a rural lens can be contrasted with the legislative requirement to undertake Islands Community Impact Assessments as part of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018^[22].

Scottish Rural Network

The role of rural networks has evolved over time since their introduction into the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2007, alongside LEADER (or Community Led Local Development). The Scottish Rural Network (SRN) was established in 2007 to support the delivery of the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP, pillar 2 of the CAP). It has evolved over time and is currently managed through the Network Support Unit within Scottish Government. The aims of the Scottish Rural Network are to:

• Get more people from rural and island communities, businesses and the wider public involved in policy developments that affect them;
• Help improve the delivery of the Scottish Rural Development Programme and wider agricultural schemes;
• Inform farmers, rural businesses and communities about policy and funding opportunities including future agricultural policy development;
• Encourage innovation in agriculture, food production, forestry and rural and island areas including community development.

The Scottish Rural Network has worked to encourage rural development by sharing information, ideas and good practice on sustainable economic growth and development and community empowerment, mainly through local and national events and regular communications. Prior to EU exit, it was one of four rural networks across the UK programmes linked within the framework of the UK National Rural Network.

The Scottish Rural Network is supported by the Scotland Rural Network website, which has provided news, information and extensive networking opportunities for everyone living and working in rural communities. The Network has also provided funding to relevant rural initiatives and projects, for example to successive Scottish Rural and Island Parliament events, the UK-wide Plunkett Foundation and Scottish AgriTourism in 2024-25. The Scottish Rural Network was evaluated by the Scottish Government's Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services (RESAS) Division in 2019-2020^[23].

Scottish Rural Action

Scottish Rural Action (SRA) was established in 2013. Its vision is “for vibrant and connected rural and island communities which have control over their future, and which contribute to building a society that is inclusive, just and sustainable.”

The organisation^[24] has five values: inclusion, diversity, cooperation, democracy and impact. Scottish Rural Action works with members and partners nationally, regionally and locally across Scotland to deliver four main activities:

• build a grassroots-led rural movement in Scotland that connects rural communities with each other and with politicians and decision-makers;
• collaborate with seldom-heard groups to create platforms that better enable their participation in the rural movement;
• collectively develop a cross-sectoral, locally-informed understanding of rural Scotland's economy, society and culture that shapes local practice and national policy;
• deliver the biennial Scottish Rural and Islands Parliament.

Scottish Rural Action has a Board of Directors elected by the membership to govern the organisation, and a staff team, including a National Coordinator. The organisation was independently evaluated in 2019 by researchers at the James Hutton Institute^[25].

In addition to organising the biennial Scottish Rural and Islands Parliament events, Scottish Rural Action’s current activities include providing advice on applying a rural lens to policies and services, organising events on particular topics^[26] and submitting responses to relevant consultations on specific rural issues and experiences.

Building a rural movement in Scotland

The building of a rural movement^[27] in Scotland was a commitment in the Scottish Government’s 2019-20 Programme for Government^[28], and it forms a key part of the work of Scottish Rural Action^[29].

In 2022, Scotland's Rural College and Newcastle University published a report based on research to explore the key characteristics, roles and methods of engagement employed by established rural movements in other European countries, in order to develop lessons to inform the Scottish approach.

Following this, a workshop was organised by Scottish Rural Action in November 2022 for strategic stakeholders. This explored how a rural movement may strengthen their individual programmes of work and collaboration between them.^[30] The Scottish Rural and Islands Parliament provides a platform for Scotland’s rural movement.

The Scottish Rural and Islands Parliament

As set out above, one of Scottish Rural Action’s key activities is to deliver the biennial Scottish Rural and Islands Parliament. The first event was held in Oban in 2014, with subsequent events in 2016 (Brechin), 2018 (Stranraer), 2021 (virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic), and most recently in 2023 in Fort William. The inaugural Scottish Rural & Islands Youth Parliament was held in 2023.

The format and purpose of Scotland’s Rural and Islands Parliament is informed by comparable events in many European countries; indeed Scotland is a member of the European-wide network of Rural Parliaments. The Parliaments are participatory, democratic processes which aim to raise rural voices, promote exchange and cooperation between communities and connect communities to decision-makers to ensure policy is shaped by rural and island expertise. The Scottish events have brought together hundreds of stakeholders, including rural and island community representatives, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Scottish Government officials, to discuss key rural and island priorities. Outputs have included manifestos, practical projects and tools, and policy recommendations. Scottish Rural Action provides the Secretariat and coordination for the events and arranges the programme in collaboration with a range of organisations.

Community Led Local Development

Since the early 1990s, the European Union’s LEADER programme has, under various funding programmes, provided investment for bottom up, community led development, managed by Local Action Groups (LAGs) across EU member states. Since 2007 LEADER has been implemented under the Common Agricultural Policy’s second pillar. In Scotland, this is known as the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP). Following the UK’s departure from the EU, the LEADER programme ceased to run in Scotland in December 2021.

In 2021-22 the Scottish Government commenced its Community Led Local Development (CLLD) programme to replace LEADER in Scotland. The design of the programme was based on the founding principles of LEADER but aimed to avoid some of its limitations and challenges, perhaps most notably the level of bureaucracy.

Community Led Local Development aims to address social, environmental and economic issues affecting rural and island communities to:

• drive community action on climate change;
• enhance rural services and facilities, including transport initiatives;
• enhance natural/cultural heritage, tourism and leisure;
• support food and drink initiatives (for example short supply chains, community food);
• build co-operation with similar groups in Scotland, UK and Europe;
• empower communities to exchange learning and knowledge with each other, realise their potential and build opportunities for all.

The LEADER network of 21 Local Action Groups (LAGs) has continued to exist across Scotland through annual budgets under the Scottish Government’s Community Led Local Development (CLLD) programme, although some of the groups have evolved, including in their governance arrangements. The CLLD programmes have differed in their size and aims since 2021, with over £38 million of Scottish Government funding provided in total (including 2025-2026) since 2021^[31]:

• In 2021-22, two test of change pilots were delivered with a total of £3.3million of funding for rural and island communities – the Rural Communities Testing Change^[32] (RCTC) and the Rural Communities Ideas into Action^[33] (RCIA) funds. This work was informed by learning from an evaluation of the first programme by Scotland’s Rural College^[34] and additional work by the James Hutton Institute^[35]. The Rural Communities Testing Change fund was available to LAGs to build on LEADER learning but to also properly innovate and test change. The Rural Communities Ideas into Action funding was open to all community groups and was delivered in partnership with Inspiring Scotland^[36]. A report was undertaken at the end of these programmes which included recommendations regarding future Community Led Local Development funding delivery^[37].
• In 2022-23, two tranches of funding were delivered to Local Action Groups:
  • £8.6million to LAGs to support Community Led Local Development in their areas through the Rural Community Led Fund^[38]. The funding was allocated to LAGs using the Socio-Economic Performance Index developed by the James Hutton Institute^[39]. £1 million of this funding was dedicated to cooperation projects and to support new partnership working.
  • £3 million of funding was available to community groups and delivered by Inspiring Scotland through the Rural and Island Communities Ideas into Action Fund^[40].
• In 2023-24:
  • £11.6 million was committed by the Scottish Government to support Community Led Local Development across rural and island Scotland, including £6.7 million ringfenced for resource use by the Local Action Group network^[41]. This was the amount needed to satisfy the requirements of the Agriculture (Retained EU Law and Data) (Scotland) Act 2020, and to enable the continued operation of the CAP schemes from January 2021. The stipulated requirement was that at least 5% of the Pillar 2 budget was allocated to LEADER (Community Led Local Development).
  • In addition, £2.9 million was available for capital funding (making a total of £9.6million available to Local Action Groups)^[42].
  • Collaboration activities and better partnership working between Local Action Groups was supported by £900,000 of funding.
  • Funding also supported a national Community Led Local Development conference in Aviemore hosted by the Scottish Rural Network bringing together stakeholders from across Scotland. The outputs from the conference included a short briefing on the future of Community Led Local Development^[43] and a briefing focusing on the position of this initiative in the wider funding landscape^[44].
  • At the 2023 Scottish Rural and Islands Parliament, a roundtable was held on the future of Community Led Local Development with the output from this discussion being a statement communicated to the Deputy First Minister, submitted to the Rural Delivery Plan Ministerial Working Group and included in the Scottish Rural and Islands Parliament’s response to the Parliamentary enquiry on the draft Agriculture & Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill^[45].
• In 2024-25 the Scottish Government committed:
  • £12.2million for rural and island communities to support Community Led Local Development and similar initiatives to ensure they are sustainable, resilient and thriving with local voices shaping and driving community development. Of the £12.2 million budget, £6.9million is statutory funding for CLLD.
  • Tranche 1 of funding (£6.65 million, with 2.9m capital and £3.75m resource) was released to Local Action Groups in May/June 2024.
  • £250,000 was allocated for this review of Community Led Local Development, Scottish Rural Action and the Scottish Rural Network.
  • Tranche 2 of funding was announced in November 2024^[46].
  • In March 2024, a Community Led Local Development workshop was held for LAG chairs and programme coordinators in Glasgow, hosted by Angus Rural Partnership and supported by the Scottish Rural Network. The event built on earlier discussions which had focused on the need for the CLLD network in Scotland to consider how best to work collectively and strategically to lead the implementation of the programme going forward^[47].
• The proposed Community Led Local Development budget for 2025-26 is currently awaiting approval through the Parliamentary approval process. In the budget approved by the Scottish Parliament on 25 February 2025, CLLD was allocated £9 million of funding, including £6.1 million of capital expenditure and £2.9 million in revenue.