Scottish Government<\/a> and delivered in partnership through The National Lottery Community Fund, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.\n<\/p>\n\n Linsay Chalmers, Director of Communities and Operations at Community Land Scotland, the main organisation promoting and supporting community ownership of land and buildings, said: \u201cThe Scottish Land Fund has transformed Scotland\u2019s communities. It is fantastic value for money and has a huge beneficial impact for communities, economies and the environment all over Scotland. It has given communities the tools to tackle really challenging problems like rural depopulation and urban decline \u2013 often succeeding when other approaches to regeneration have failed.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Since 2011, over \u00a377million has been invested into 394 rural community projects and 71 urban community projects, while 121,609 acres of land has been brought into community ownership with support from the Scottish Land Fund.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cMany hundreds of communities have benefited with essential purchase and start-up funding and development\u201d, Ms Chalmers added.\n<\/p>\n
\n ![]()
The Isle of Gigha was purchased by its community in 2002 through the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust (IGHT) for approximately \u00a34 million(Image: HELP)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThese communities all over the country, have often been totally revitalised and brought to life with land projects, affordable housing, renewable energy, community facilities and biodiversity projects amongst many others\u2013 all for less \u00a0than one mile of urban tramline.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Projects funded by SLF must be community led, controlled by local residents, and benefit a clearly defined geographic area with any income reinvested locally.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ms Chalmers said: \u201cIt is superb value for money. The fund should now see an annual increase. The Scottish Government had originally aimed for a \u00a320 million annual budget by 2026, so our argument for \u00a0\u00a325 million annual target by 2031, \u00a0is \u00a0realistic and reasonable.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe know that Scotland has one of the most unregulated land markets in Europe which is a major challenge. But Scotland\u2019s community ownership movement is world-beating in many ways. People come from across the world to see how our communities have tackled depopulation and developed innovative community energy projects and we need to build on that success.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Scottish Land Fund\u00a0Committee\u00a0Chair, Cara Gillespie, added:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe Scottish Land Fund has been a transformative force for communities across Scotland \u2014 from the Highlands to our cities \u2014 empowering local people to take ownership of land and buildings and use them to deliver lasting social and economic benefits.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWith millions of pounds invested to date, the impact has been both wide-reaching and deeply felt. As demand continues to grow, it\u2019s clear there is an appetite for even more ambitious community ownership.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cContinued \u2014 and enhanced \u2014 investment in the Scottish Land Fund is vital to sustain this momentum and ensure more communities have the opportunity to shape their own future.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Amongst the successful projects supported by SLF, in 2002 the Fund supported the community buyout of the Isle of Gigha with grants and loans towards part of the \u00a34m purchase cost.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since the buyout, the island\u2019s population has bucked the trend for many Highland Communities, seeing a huge rise in population – from 92 to 170 – over the last 23 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n Three community run wind turbines help finance various enterprises including developments in a local hotel, shop, restaurant and accommodation. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Land Reform Secretary Mairi Gougeon said: \u201cDespite significant UK Government<\/a> cuts to our capital budget in previous years, we continue to support and invest in community ownership of land and buildings.\n<\/p>\n\n \u201cThe SLF is an incredible success in supporting communities, with the most recent round of awards announced just weeks ago. I have seen for myself the benefits to communities from the more than \u00a332m the Scottish Government has provided to the Scottish Land Fund since 2021. The fund nurtures and delivers projects that bring people together and provide vital resources to areas all across Scotland, particularly in our rural and island regions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Land reform campaigners and community landowners have called for a \u00a325 million annual fund to maintain Scotland\u2019s “world-beating”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-481642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-scotland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115335852408196060","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}