Scottish land fund: EIR release

Information requested

1. A breakdown of spending from the Scottish Land Fund per year, since 2021

2. The amount of funding left over in the budget allocated to the Scottish Land Fund per year, since 2021

3. The number, names and locations, of projects awarded stage 2 funding by the Scottish Land Fund, broken down into a table, since 1 June 2023

Response

1. The Table below sets out the total amount of payments by the Scottish Land Fund for each financial year.

Commitment per Financial Year	Total Spend
2021 ‐ 2022	£7,658,882
2022 ‐ 2023	£7,186,432
2023 ‐ 2024	£5,621,799

Notes

• Please note that the 2023‐2024 figure is interim (two meetings out of the four scheduled have still to be held). Forecasts for 2023‐2024 are for a full spend of the £11m budget.
• In the later years of the previous Fund (2016‐2021) Community Asset Transfers were around 40% of cases. This demand reduced significantly in 2021‐2022 and 2022‐2023 due to Relevant Authorities having other priorities such as their Covid response. There are still major delays in these transfers due to capacity issues in Relevant Authorities and the complexity of many of these cases.
• In 2021‐2022, Community Groups were still focussing on support to their local communities as part of the response to COVID‐19, so the number of applications was understandably lower.
• In 2022‐2023, there were two large scale applications (worth around £1.25m) due to be considered in March 2023. The complexity of these cases meant a delay in receiving the applications before the end of the financial year. Both were received and awarded in 2023‐2024.

2. The Table below sets out the amount remaining from the total grant making budget at the end of each financial year.

Underspend per Financial Year	Amount unspent
2021 ‐ 2022	£2,341,118
2022 ‐ 2023	£2,813,568
2023 ‐ 2024	n/a

Notes 

• Please note 2023‐2024 is ongoing and no figure is available.

3. The Table below lists the total number of Stage 2 projects awarded since June 2023, with names of awarded
organisations and their location by Local Authority. Details of all awards made by the Scottish Land Fund, since 2016, can
be found on the National Lottery Community Fund webpage (Scottish Land Fund | The National Lottery Community Fund
(tnlcommunityfund.org.uk))

Total Stage 2 Awards since June 2023

13

 

Awarded Organisation	Local Authority Area
Broadford and Strath Community Company	Highlands
Bute Community Land Company	Argyll & Bute
Evanton Community Trust	Highlands
Gairloch and Loch Ewe Action Forum	Highlands
Great Western Community Trust	Aberdeen
Sunart Community Company	Highlands
The Grantown Society (SCIO)	Highlands
Resonate Together	Clackmannanshire
Plockton & District Community Trust	Highlands
Hoy Youth Hub	Orkney
Friends of Sanday Kirk LTD	Orkney
Fort Augustus & Glenmoriston Community Company	Highlands
Whalsay Kirk Development Company	Shetland

About FOI

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