Rural Delivery Plan

Why is a Rural Delivery Plan being developed?

Scotland’s rural economy is a major source of growth, with incredible opportunity in our rural communities. However, rural communities face significant and unique challenges, such as access to reliable digital infrastructure, availability of affordable local housing, access to regular and reliable public transport, and demographic challenges.

In 2023, the then First Minister, Humza Yousaf, committed to publishing a Rural Delivery Plan by the end of the current Parliament, a commitment we are on track to deliver.

The Plan will set out how all parts of the Scottish Government are investing in Scotland’s mainland rural communities, with a focus on delivery and impact.

The Rural Delivery Plan focuses specifically on how the Scottish Government is supporting communities in mainland rural Scotland, whilst the National Islands Plan covers how the Scottish Government will deliver for our island communities.

What will be delivered?

As part of the Rural Delivery Plan we are developing the first vision for rural mainland Scotland, as asked for in the Scottish Rural and Islands Parliament in 2021.

Underpinning the vision for rural mainland Scotland are nine strategic objectives, focusing on:

Agriculture and Marine Economy
Digital
Population and Skills
Social Justice
Housing
Health and Social Care
Environment and Climate Change
Transport
Culture

These strategic objectives will be accompanied by key performance indicators, reflecting the unique successes, opportunities and challenges in rural Scotland, and the real change we aim to deliver. The information we gather from these indicators over time will demonstrate the impact of existing policy and guide our future policy and investment decisions.

The Rural Delivery Plan will act as a framework to consider the full breadth of policy delivery in the rural space; it is an opportunity to bring together often siloed areas of interest and consider what is happening holistically.

We have developed a Rural Assessment Toolkit as part of the Rural Delivery Plan to make sure that the distinctive characteristics of rural communities and economies are considered from the very start of designing a policy, right through to its implementation and delivery. These resources are based on academic, sectoral and international expertise and give the Scottish Government policy teams practical guidance on how to consider the needs of rural communities in their work.

The Rural Delivery Plan Ministerial Working Group

The Ministerial Working Group was established to bring together ministers from across government to focus on delivery for rural areas. The group meets regularly and are jointly chaired by the Deputy First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands. You can find minutes on this Ministerial Working Group on the Scottish Government website.

Rural Delivery Plan for the mainland, National Islands Plan for island communities

The original commitment made in the previous First Minister’s Policy Prospectus was to publish a plan setting out how all parts of the Scottish Government are delivering for “rural Scotland”, including the Scottish islands. The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 however requires Ministers to publish a National Islands Plan (NIP), setting out how the Scottish Government will deliver for island communities. The first NIP was published in December 2019, and following a public consultation in 2023, Scottish Ministers announced that work will commence on the development of a second National Islands Plan, to be published in 2025.

In order to avoid duplication and recognising the distinct and unique characteristics of rural and islands, a decision was taken in August 2024 to refine the scope of the Rural Delivery Plan to mainland rural Scotland only.

How have we developed the Plan?

We are not starting from scratch in developing the Rural Delivery Plan; early drafts of the Plan have been developed by drawing on existing work and stakeholder engagement, particularly the outcomes from the Scottish Rural and Islands Parliament in 2021 and 2023.

We also know that in recent years communities and stakeholders have engaged significantly with the Scottish Government on a range of topics that relate to the Rural Delivery Plan. To capture that existing effort, we are reviewing public consultations in order to better understand our stakeholders’ experience of rural policy.

We have appointed the Rural Stakeholder Group as the external governance group for the Rural Delivery Plan. The members of the group are drawn from national bodies and organisations, with expertise across the spectrum of relevant sectors.

Next steps for the Rural Delivery Plan

We plan to publish and report on the Rural Delivery Plan as follows:

Publication during the lifetime of this parliament
Ongoing engagement with rural stakeholders
Annual reporting on the Key Performance Indicators, with accompanying narrative
Potential for a full review and refresh of the Rural Delivery Plan on a longer timescale

The details of publishing and reporting on the Rural Delivery Plan will be discussed at future meetings of the Rural Delivery Plan Ministerial Working Group and Rural Stakeholder Group.

How to get involved in developing the Rural Delivery Plan?

We are designing an opportunity for organisations, communities and individuals to get involved in the development of the Rural Delivery Plan itself. You can help us shape the key aspects of the Plan by taking part in our survey Rural Delivery Plan: vision, strategic objectives and key performance indicators that will be open until 17 March 2025.

We continue to attend events, meetings and conferences, to meet stakeholders and discuss the Rural Delivery Plan, and how it can be developed in future years.

If you would like to find out more on the Rural Delivery Plan or have any questions or feedback, please contact us at: RuralPolicyMailbox@gov.scot