Rural services

Draft regulations allowing local authorities to charge up to double the full rate of Council Tax on second homes have been laid before the Scottish Parliament.  

Village halls and community hubs are often the heart of rural and island communities. They are places for people to gather, learn, access services and have fun. Making sure they are well run and maintained is an important but not always easy role, often fulfilled by committed volunteers and workers.

The Scottish Rural and Islands Parliament (SRIP) is an important opportunity for voice of rural and island communities to help reinforce the importance of local democracy and to help shape the emerging Rural Delivery Plan. The theme of this year’s SRIP was Village Halls and Community Spaces.

A new grant scheme has been created as part of the 2023 National Litter and Flytipping Strategy to aid private landowners in deterring flytipping on their land.

Zero Waste Scotland is administering the funding, on behalf of SEPA, to aid private landowners towards interventions that will prevent flytipping on private land.

 Scottish agricultural charity RSABI is working with Dyslexia Scotland to raise awareness of the challenges many people involved in farming face with dyslexia. 

The National Centre for Resilience (NCR) have announced that their ‘Community Councils Fund’ is open with applications closing on 31 January 2024.

The funding is for Community Councils to develop local resilience plans that address potential natural hazards such as heavy snow, landslides, high winds, and other disruptive events and subsequently enhance their local community preparedness and response to natural hazards.

The capital fund from The Robertson Trust is open to applications from registered charities with an annual income of between £25,000 and £2 million. Applications should support work that addresses the impacts of poverty and/or trauma under one or more of the following themes:

Views are being sought on the introduction of the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment, a new benefit to replace the UK Government’s Winter Fuel Payment in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has previously committed to delivering the new payment on a like-for-like basis with the existing benefit. It will help more than a million pensioners with heating costs in the winter.