Rural services

Housing, tourism and population retention

Contested rural environments: housing tourism and population retention

Rural Scotland covers 94% of the land but faces significant challenges, such as housing shortages, poor healthcare access, and tensions over land use. These issues impact both rural communities and the environment.

This RSE in-conversation livestream series brings together experts to explore these issues, uncover their roots, and discuss solutions for a more sustainable future.

A call for views and evidence that stakeholders may have about how well current policies and actions are working to tackle child poverty in Scotland has been announced. 

A two-part survey, conducted by The James Hutton Institute on behalf of NatureScot, Natural England and the Welsh Government, has been issued as part of the Strategic Bracken Framework project to gather information about different methods currently being employed to deal with bracken, so that the information can be synthesised and shared more widely.
 

Woodland Habitat Impact Assessment (WHIALite) Workshop – Tayvallich

Known as ‘WHIA Lite’ this method has been developed to stand separately to the full Woodland Habitat Impact Assessment (WHIA) methodology found in the woodland grazing toolbox on the Scottish Forestry website.

2025 Scottish WHIALite Programme Learn a methodology for assessing the impacts of grazing herbivores on woodland habitat.

The 2025-26 Scottish Budget has been approved by Parliament, including £21.7 billion for health & social care and more than £15 billion for local councils, alongside social security measures supporting an estimated two million people.

The Budget invests:

Land for Rural Housing: Supporting the Delivery of New Rural Homes

The Scottish Land Commission (SLC) has published a new report on Land for Rural Housing and the opportunity for public sector leadership. 

This session will explore the need to increase rural housing and the role of a supply of land in creating new homes.  Major opportunities for economic growth in rural Scotland require new homes to support that growth.  At the same time remote communities are suffering from depopulation and an ageing demographic.

Sabhal Mòr Ostaig is to be a Gaelic hub in the new Centre for Teaching Excellence, Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth has announced during a visit to the college.

The Cabinet Secretary met with staff at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture, during a visit to discuss the aims of the new Centre in providing opportunities for Gaelic teachers across the country.

Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) will lead a review of three core elements of the Scottish Government’s existing funding and policy support for rural and island communities: Community Led Local Development (CLLD), Scottish Rural Action (SRA) and the Scottish Rural Network (SRN).  

The Scottish Government is working in partnership with the UK Government to deliver its Project Gigabit programme to bring faster broadband connections to hard-to-reach parts of Scotland.

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