Scottish Rural Communities Policy Review: Scottish Rural Network, Scottish Rural Action and Community Led Local Development review report

1. Introduction

1.1. Project overview

The Scottish Rural Communities Policy Review was carried out in four stages by a consortium of independent researchers. Overall, the project has been led by SRUC (Scotland’s Rural College), with Ipsos and the University of the Highlands and Islands leading on stages one and three respectively.

1.2. Setting the context: Scotland’s rural and island communities

Rural Scotland is home to approximately 17% of Scotland’s total population^[1] and makes up 98% of Scotland’s landmass^[2]. Scotland also has 89 inhabited islands (Scottish Islands Typology 2024 Overview)^[3]. Scotland’s rural and island communities are diverse in many ways^[4]. They vary in their geography, from accessible rural areas close to major conurbations, to former industrial (including coalfield) areas, to communities distant from urban centres in both mainland and island locations. While some rural areas may experience development pressures, other areas may experience population decrease, and challenges may include economic fragility, poor connectivity and declining service provision^[5]. These communities are also places of tremendous opportunity: from abundant natural resources, to digital connectivity enabling home working, new business formation and innovative approaches to service delivery, a tradition of volunteers often engaged in community led development, and emerging mutually beneficial interactions between rural and urban locations.

The context shaping these challenges and opportunities for rural and island communities is constantly evolving. For example, economic circumstances have been shaped by the cost-of-living crisis, as well as ongoing uncertainties relating to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, EU exit and wider global geo-political events, all of which have contributed to public sector budgetary pressures. Demographic shifts are also important, with Scotland’s population ageing particularly rapidly in rural and island communities. This brings new opportunities as many older people remain healthy and active but also challenges in terms of rising demand for health and social care provision (and associated workforce shortages).

Shifting policy priorities and decisions are also impacting on rural and island communities, often in different ways to their urban counterparts. The Scottish Government has placed considerable emphasis on a legislative and policy framework^[6] which seeks to support: enhanced community empowerment and local democracy; a greater diversity of land ownership; Community Wealth Building as an alternative economic model; a just transition to net zero; more sustainable and integrated land use; improved public services; and the eradication of child poverty. Many rural and island communities have proven expertise in delivering locally-led developments within this policy and legislative framework, including: managing major community owned energy developments and land estates, delivering important events such as Scottish and European Rural Parliaments, mobilising quick responses during Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdowns, pioneering community-led housing, and helping to design policy such as through the recent widespread uptake of local place plans. Significant community-led grassroots initiatives in many (but by no means all) places is a headline success^[7]. Despite these policy and implementation achievements, persistent challenges endure in rural and island areas, particularly in terms of long-term population decline and economic fragility. Notably, the expansion of community led development in rural and island Scotland in recent decades has occurred within a dramatically changing funding context, including governmental fiscal challenges and the growth of private community benefit funds such as community wind farm funds.

For Scotland’s rural and island communities to remain demographically and economically sustainable, and indeed prosper in future, there will continue to be a role for the public sector. Support will ensure vital outputs and outcomes for rural and island communities but also for Scotland as a whole. These outputs and outcomes include:

• Ensuring vital services are available locally (including housing, transport, health and digital connectivity) so that young people can remain, working people can work remotely and set up new businesses, and older people can live healthy, independent lives
• Creating opportunities for rural and island communities to help deliver Scotland’s net zero goals, through sustainable land management and increased renewable energy generation, for example
• Recognising the higher costs faced by rural and island residents in heating their homes and running their businesses
• Supporting those working in farming and crofting to ensure Scotland continues to produce healthy food for its population
• Enhancing community resilience through supporting capacity- and skills-building amongst local residents and businesses

Scotland has a range of existing policies, initiatives and funding streams which support its rural and island communities to build their capacity to access and use this public sector support as effectively as possible. This ‘rural community infrastructure’ has evolved over time and involves a number of different elements, including (but not limited to) support for a Scottish Rural Network, Scottish Rural Action and Community Led Local Development.

Scottish Rural Network and Community Led Local Development were established as part of the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy in the UK and have evolved in recent years as a result of EU exit and the ending of this funding. Scottish Rural Network is a support network for rural and island communities, businesses and the wider public (see Section 3.1). Community Led Local Development is a funding programme which averaged £10.4 million annually from 2022 to 2025 (See Section 5.1). Scottish Rural Action is an independent charity which emerged in the context of national government commitments to create and strengthen a rural movement and to organise biennial Scottish Rural and Island Parliaments (See Section 4.1).

This rural community funding and support exists alongside the ongoing Agriculture Reform Programme^[8] which is shaping the new approach to supporting agriculture in Scotland, including direct support to farmers for producing food, but also wider support for doing so in a more climate-friendly way, including through the exchange of information and advice (such as through the Farm Advisory Service^[9] and the wider Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System, AKIS). The Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024^[10] contains a commitment to publish a Rural Support Plan, and April 2025 saw the launch of the Rural Assessment Toolkit within the Scottish Government to support policy teams whose work may impact rural areas.

The Scottish Islands Federation^[11] exists to promote the interests of Scotland’s many islands. There have also been island-specific funding and support schemes such as Carbon Neutral Islands^[12] and the Islands Programme, and there is an islands-specific legislative and policy framework, including the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018^[13], National Islands Plans^[14], and Island Communities Impact Assessments^[15]. The Scottish Government also maintains a Scottish Islands Data Dashboard^[16].

In addition to this rural- and island-specific funding and support there are a range of government support and funding programmes which are available across Scotland for community-led activity. These include the Scottish Land Fund^[17] which provides help for rural and urban communities to own land and buildings. The Scottish Government has also provided funding for a range regeneration-focused projects including: the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund; the Vacant and Derelict Investment Programme; the Investing in Communities Fund and the; Strengthening Communities Programme^[18]. Theses funds can recognise some of the challenges of rural accessibility and connectivity, for example.. Organisations such as the Development Trusts Association Scotland ^[19], Community Land Scotland^[20] and the Scottish Communities Alliance^[21] provide a range of further support to communities across Scotland to support community led development. Scotland’s two rural-specific enterprise agencies – Highlands and Islands Enterprise^[22] and South of Scotland Enterprise^[23] – also deliver a range of business- and wider community-focused support which is tailored to the rural contexts of their respective regions. Looking beyond Scotland at UK Government support, there is the Pride in Place Programme launched in the summer of 2025 and the Plan for Neighbourhoods, which provides £1.5 billion of funding to invest in 75 areas across the UK from 2025-2035. In parallel, private community funding, such as for wind farm community benefits, and foundation support, provide other sources of community funding.

Rural and island Scotland therefore has a complex and evolving landscape of support for community-led activities, some of which is specifically tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities of these communities, and some of which is available to communities everywhere.

Delivering activities and benefits with input from, or led by, communities across all areas of Scotland, has been a core thread running through Scottish Government activity despite changing administrations. One example of this is community empowerment and land reform legislation (which provided a legal basis for innovation led by rural and island community development). A robust, democratic and inclusive community sector supported by an appropriate legislative and policy framework by Scottish Government is thus a vital asset for Scotland. This project explores the aims, roles, delivery mechanisms, and impacts of three key elements of rural-specific community support – Scottish Rural Network, Scottish Rural Action and Community Led Local Development - drawing on a range of evidence to assess how having a geographically-tailored policy infrastructure for rural and island Scotland brings particular benefits and how these benefits can be enhanced in future.

1.3. Overview of rural policy developments in Scotland during the review period

As well as recognising the broader Scottish legislative and policy landscape, this review project is taking place in the context of important changes in agriculture and rural policy in Scotland as a result of EU exit. In its 2023-24 Programme for Government^[24], the Scottish Government committed to introduce an Agriculture and Rural Communities Bill to provide powers to replace the agricultural and rural development policy schemes which were set out under the Common Agricultural Policy as part of EU law. The Bill was passed in the Scottish Parliament in July 2024, becoming the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024^[25]. The Act sets out the framework for future rural and agricultural support, based around the need to promote sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices and enhance rural development, as well as priorities around high-quality food production and provisions for climate adaptation and mitigation and nature protection and restoration. Albeit at high level, the Act recognises the important synergies between the agricultural sector (especially in its broadest sense including upstream and downstream linkages) and rural communities. Secondary legislation and a range of policies and programmes will be required to deliver the enabling powers of the Act. Included in this is the commitment to develop a Rural Support Plan that sets out how the powers conferred by the Act will operate in practice including the new support schemes. This Plan is currently being developed by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government also published a new five-year National Islands Plan in February 2026, replacing the original plan which was launched in 2019^[26]. The Plan results from a commitment set out in the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018^[27], which also included a legislative commitment for public bodies to undertake Island Communities Impact Assessments when implementing policies, services or strategies which may affect island communities in significantly different ways to other communities. This legal requirement can be compared to the voluntary use of a Rural Assessment Toolkit to assess the potential impacts of new policies, strategies and services on rural communities, which was launched internally within the Scottish Government in April 2025^[28]. Also in December 2025, the Scottish Government launched an updated Rural Data Dashboard^[29] which helps to support the rural assessment work of policy teams across government.

It is interesting to reflect on these policy developments in the context of changes in other parts of the UK and at EU level. It is particularly notable that Scotland is the only part of the UK to have continued with a successor scheme to the EU-funded LEADER programme^[30]. Scotland’s Rural and Islands Parliament^[31] is also unique in a UK context and in October 2025, Scottish Rural Action hosted the 6^th European Rural Parliament^[32] in the north-east of Scotland. There are some similarities (but also important differences) between England’s Action with Communities in Rural England network^[33] and Scottish Rural Action^[34], and Northern Ireland has a Rural Community Network^[35]. In the European Commission’s 2023-2027 programming period, there is a requirement for a minimum of 5% of the total European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development contribution to the Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan to be reserved for LEADER^[36]. In the Commission’s proposal for the structure of the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework, however, there is no ring-fenced budget for LEADER/Community Led Local Development, which means that Member States could choose not to implement it as they design their new National and Regional Partnership Plans in which all Commission funds will be bundled together^[37].

Sections 1.2 and 1.3 of this report have outlined the key elements of the policy landscape in which this review is being undertaken, emphasising in particular the importance placed by the Scottish Government over the last few decades on empowering communities across Scotland to take on the ownership and management of assets and to engage in local decision-making through a range of formal and informal mechanisms and organisations.

There are many examples of positive grassroots-led local activity across rural and island communities - including the ownership and management of land and buildings, community transport schemes, initiatives to tackle poverty and isolation and grow local food - but this is not the case everywhere. In many instances this activity has relied on external support, whether that is a facilitating policy and legislative framework, external advice, and/or funding support. At a time when the development opportunities in Scotland’s rural and island communities are becoming ever more apparent – in terms of renewable energy generation, carbon sequestration and digitally-enabled working and learning – this bottom-up activity is becoming all the more important to sustain populations and economic activity in these areas, and to contribute to the wider economy of Scotland and the wellbeing of its national population. For Scotland’s rural and island communities, there is a complex and evolving support infrastructure to support some of these activities, some of which is geographically-focused, and some of which is available across Scotland. In this context, this review focuses on the roles, modes of operation, impacts and inter-relationships between three of the elements of the rural specific support infrastructure.

1.4. Project aims

To inform future support arrangements for rural communities in Scotland, in Autumn 2024 the Scottish Government commissioned a review of the roles and impacts of three core elements of rural support in Scotland over specified time periods^[38]:

• Scottish Rural Network (since 2021-22)
• Scottish Rural Action (since 2020-21)
• Community Led Local Development (since 2021-22)

Scottish Rural Network was initially established in 2007 as part of the Scotland Rural Development Programme Pillar 2 of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy. Community Led Local Development is the Scottish Government’s successor programme to the EU-funded LEADER programme (which was also part of the SRDP), which was established in 2021-22 after three decades of LEADER support for rural and island Scotland. Scottish Rural Action was established in 2013 to work with stakeholders to deliver a Scottish Rural Parliament and to create and strengthen a rural movement in Scotland.

In doing this review, the research team acknowledges that Scottish Rural Network, Scottish Rural Action and Community Led Local Development are only three elements of a wider system of support for rural communities across Scotland, which includes other stakeholder organisations and groups, and other funding mechanisms. We make reference to parts of the wider system where relevant throughout this report.

The review aimed to generate a robust and practical evidence base in order to:

• Evaluate the delivery of Scottish Rural Network, Scottish Rural Action and Community Led Local Development against their intended aims, identifying their unique roles, overall impact, and any gaps or areas of duplication
• Engage with a range of stakeholders to examine the strategic fit of these elements within a wider policy and funding context, and in relation to other public and third sector policy and interventions
• Produce options and practical recommendations for their future focus, role, and delivery in the context of the forthcoming Rural Support Plan and wider rural policy developments

The team acknowledges the existence of a large body of existing evaluation work and evidence relating to rural community interventions generally and Scottish Rural Network, Scottish Rural Action and Community Led Local Development in particular. We have drawn on this evidence in this project as a key part of our review of existing data and to inform our fieldwork approaches, for example to shape survey and interview questions.

It is also worth acknowledging that over the time period of focus in this review significant events have occurred which have fundamentally shaped the context in which Scottish Rural Network, Scottish Rural Action and Community Led Local Development have operated. The first is EU exit which has removed Scotland’s farmers and rural communities from the Common Agricultural Policy, including the multiannual LEADER programme of support for bottom-up community led local development in rural areas across the EU, as well as the requirement for a dedicated national rural network. This has led to considerable uncertainty and change in the policy landscape in which these actors are operating right across the UK while new policy frameworks are being designed.

The second key event was the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Governments everywhere were forced to focus on responses to its challenges, meaning that discussions about and decisions on other issues were delayed. In many places, local people often supported governments to deliver at least some of their support packages for communities and businesses.

Finally, it is important to also acknowledge the ongoing cost of living crisis which has affected households across Scotland, and the wider context of public sector budgetary constraints. This has led to reduced service provision in many places, particularly in rural areas where the costs of providing services are higher due to dispersed populations and longer distances.

1.5. Research questions

To deliver against the project aims, the following research questions were agreed at project commencement:

• How have the three elements delivered against their original aims?
• What are the specific roles of the elements and how have they operated in order to deliver these aims? What types of groups or organisations have benefited from them? What impacts have been identified? What data gaps exist in identifying these impacts?
• How do the elements fit strategically to relevant wider public and third sector interventions? Are there any gaps or areas of duplication, why/how do these gaps/areas of duplication exist, and what has been the impact of them?
• What do key stakeholders, those working more widely in the sector, and rural and island communities see as the main challenges and opportunities of delivering these elements up until now, in the present context, and potentially in the future?
• What can we learn from relevant UK and international case studies?
• Who are likely to be the main beneficiaries of rural community support in future and how can the impacts of that support best be measured? Are there any groups that may benefit from greater targeting or more focused support in future? How can they best be targeted?
• Based on the findings of this review, what recommendations can be made to inform the delivery of rural development support in future?

1.6 Funding overview

A summary of the funding allocations for the elements of the review is provided in Table 1.

* Further details on the allocation of the Scottish Rural Network funding are in Table 4 and the Scottish Rural Network Section of the report.

** Further details on Scottish Rural Action funding from Scottish Government, including objects and indicators, is in Table 5 and the Scottish Rural Action Section of the report.

***Community Led Local Development figures in table 1 are the indicative allocations for Local Action Groups that were set at the start of the financial year. These figures do not include some of the centrally administered costs for the programme, such as monitoring and evaluation. Further details are provided in Section 5.

**** 2025-26 data is indicative.

Further methodological explanations of the funding data provided by Scottish Government are in Section 2.3.

1.7 Approach to the diversity of Scotland’s rural areas

One aim of this review was to inform future support arrangements for rural communities in Scotland. Scotland’s rural communities are very diverse, and include accessible rural areas, former industrial (including coalfield) areas, rural areas distant from urban centres on the mainland, and rural areas on islands. We have taken account of this diversity in our methodological approach in this project and will do so when developing the recommendations. These will reflect a need for policies to be appropriate for different rural geographies, such as post-industrial rural areas, islands, areas far from infrastructure concentrations, and those with dispersed populations, and those under development pressure.

In terms of Scotland’s islands specifically, Scottish Rural Network, Scottish Rural Action and Community Led Local Development all have a remit to include islands. However, we also acknowledge that there are separate, specific islands funding streams, a National Islands Plan and associated Island Communities Impact Assessments, and that the Scottish Islands Federation exists, alongside Scottish Rural Action, to promote and advance the interests of Scotland’s islands. These island-specific initiatives have not been reviewed in this project, although we do make reference to them in our analysis.