Enterprise

Rural young people with a new business or social enterprise idea, or working on an established project, that will benefit themselves and their local community will have access to a series of workshops held across Scotland in April and May, launched today by the Rural Youth Project.

Projects and businesses across the country have been awarded funding from the Connect Local Regional Food Fund.

Twenty-one projects will share £95,550 from the fund to promote locally sourced food and drink. Projects include the Crail Food Festival, Lerwick fish market opening pop-up market and South Lanarkshire Food and Drink Week.

The Scottish Land Fund has awarded £1,586,398 to 11 community ownership projects.

A community development company on the island of Colonsay, population 135, has been awarded £390,000 to buy land to build affordable housing and to create a site for affordable business units. The money will be used to buy two areas of land around the settlement of Scalasaig as part of a project to build homes for island residents.

The Scottish Government has started early engagement on the development of Scotland's fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4).

The National Planning Framework is a long term plan for development and investment across Scotland.

Community Owned Shops and Pubs - Making It Easy

Has your community shop or pub recently closed or is it considered at risk? Would your community like to take action to secure its future?

A shop or a pub can be the heart of a community, taking on a role well beyond its function, yet more and more are facing closure. To ensure these vital community assets are preserved, communities from across Scotland are coming together to take their shop or pub into community ownership.

On 5 November 2019, the Scottish Government published its proposed phased work programme for reviewing permitted development rights.

It is accompanied with a Sustainability Appraisal, commissioned by Scottish Government, which sets out the likely significant environmental, social and economic effects of options for change.

Brexit: What Now? (Webinar)

The UK leaves the European Union at 11 pm on 31st January, some 1,317 days after the referendum but there’s still no clarity about what the future looks like in a number of key areas. Not least is the fact that, in theory at least, the prospect of ‘no deal’ could raise its head again at the end of 2021 in the event that we haven’t concluded a trade agreement with the EU.

An upcoming Scottish Rural Action conference will kick start a 'rural movement' to make rural Scotland's voice heard.

Representatives from rural Scotland's communities, businesses and organisations are invited to attend the free event taking place from 26 to 27 February at New Lanark Visitor Centre, the renowned world heritage site.

The Woodland Trust Scotland started recently to coppice hazel at Glen Finglas (Trossachs, Scotland).

Over the next couple of years, we’re planning to implement a small-scale rotation (approx. 20 stools/rotation), involving volunteers, to enhance woodland biodiversity and to produce raw material which can be transformed into sustainable products. We’ve just started our first rotation of approx. 10-15 year old hazel, providing a variety of rods.

Funding has been announce for enterprise projects in Dumfries and Galloway, including a new distillery and a project to enhance social enterprises in the region.

The projects will receive a share of more than £500,000 from the South of Scotland Economic Partnership (SOSEP).

The funding announced includes:

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