Scottish Community Land Network

Welcome to the Scottish Community Land Network

You're seeing this message because you are a visitor - it disappears when you log in!

This site is for people interested in the management and ownership of land-based assets by communities in Scotland. A Scottish Community Land Network, you might say... As you know the internet is a big 'place' with everything about anything so we aim to bring you relevant news and events, and provide opportunities to share ideas with other people interested in this subject. So far there are over 800 members, and more than 500 articles in our archive.

We hope you will join the network so that you can share your views, experiences and aspirations of owning and managing land-based assets.

You can join for FREE - all you need is a valid email address. You'll receive a monthly email digest of news and views from the network, and get access to all the interactive features of this site, which show up when you log in.

The most recent articles are available on the home page - previous articles are in their relevant topic areas (browse the 'Topics' menu on the left).

Scotland Rural Development Programme

SRDP review published

User Rating:

/ 0

Details: Thursday, 11 June 2009 09:21 Tamsin Morris Hits: 689

The Scottish Government has recently published Peter Cook's review of the Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP). The review was commissioned in January (see previous article) and took place before the full-scale review which is required in 2010.

The report, which can be accessed here, focuses primarily on the Rural Priorities section of the programme and on the balance between the different parts of the programme. It's surprisingly easy to read and makes a number of recommendations, particularly in terms of the on-line application process, which has been a problem in areas without broad band. The Government appear to be prepared to accept most of the recommendations, so there will be some changes to how the scheme is being delivered. For hill farmers, there will also be changes to the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme over the coming months. One important change for community group applicants is the plan to increase the potential grant rate from 50% to 90% for community projects, which will significantly reduce the need to find match funding.

The Government has also announced a review of the Single Farm Payment scheme, which will be lead by Brian Pack, formerly the Chief Executive of the Aberdeen and Northern Marts group. He's due to report by Easter 2010, with the possibility of some early recommendations being published later this year.