Community development

Crofters across Scotland will be able to apply for larger sums of money to upgrade their housing under the Croft House Grant.

To help ensure more crofters and their families can benefit, the government is increasing the grant rate for home improvements from 40% to 60% of the total project cost – with a maximum grant of £38,000.

With this week being nature Nature Restoration Skills Week, NatureScot and partners have put together a programme of free training events focussed on skills for nature restoration. 

The Pollinator Strategy 2022 Progress Report highlights the work of organisations coming together across the country to create wildflower meadows, connect habitats, and gather evidence on how climate change is affecting pollinators. 

This month the Scottish Government published its National Strategy for Economic Transformation. This sets out the priorities for Scotland’s economy as well as the actions needed to maximise the opportunities of the next decade to achieve our vision of a wellbeing economy.

The Scottish Government has produced a model Company Limited by Guarantee template, to enable a crofting community to form a Company Limited by Guarantee, for the purposes of exercising the right to buy land, a tenants interest in land and sporting interests, under Part 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.

Private rent increases will be capped at 3% and restrictions will remain on enforcement of evictions under measures approved today by MSPs.

The changes to the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) Act will mean that from 1 April 2023:

Support for community groups bringing people and communities together to tackle isolation has been launched today.

The £3.8 million Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund is part of a new plan, Recovering our Connections, that aims to reduce inequality by bringing people from communities across Scotland together.