Scotland: National Rural Network
Connecting Rural Scotland - Promoting Rural Growth

By Petra Vergunst

When Langholm Initiative was founded in 1994, the town's High Street had seven empty shops and a local care home had just closed its doors. Now, all shop premises are occupied and the economy is blooming. Flower baskets in the shopping street and walking, cycling and heritage trails have been part of the strategy to promote Langholm as a destination for short breaks to put it back on the map again.

We generally trust community buy-outs to generate economic regeneration. The development of co-managed and leased assets and common property like heritage does so as well, a study by researcher and writer Petra Vergunst revealed. Hence, ownership of assets is not essential to bring about economic benefit.

Economic regeneration can be a result of even the smallest project. In developing and maintaining recreational paths, archives of local photographs and village halls, community groups buy goods and services from local businesses. To give one example, the annual Johnshaven Fish Festival provides income for the community-owned campsite, the local pub and the shop, and in turn also for the local joiner. Like the £10 that is spent on a local vegetable box scheme actually means an investment of £25 in the local economy, the smallest purchase in a local shop may have a much wider impact on the vitality of the local economy.

Economic regeneration can also be a result of the creation of employment and contract for local businesses. Since its foundation Langholm Initiative have employed a number of development officers to support local people to set up their own businesses. In 1997 Laggan Forest Trust negotiated a co-management agreement with Forest Enterprise that stated that forest management be carried out by local businesses. Laggan Forest Trust thus ensured eight to twelve contracts for local businesses annually, a significant boost to the economy of a village with 200 residents.

The question is though whether this employment and these contracts are financed by grants or self-generated income? Groups like Banchory & District Initiative, Laggan Forest Trust and Langholm Initiative all experience difficulties with finding money to pay core staff to help the groups with essential administration, communication and finding additional funding. Though funding is available for specific projects, particularly for those that are innovative in nature, there is a general lack of funding to cover salaries for core staff.

Yet, asset ownership does not necessarily generate enough income to cover core staff. Only a minority of the communities that have bought land or buildings are able to generate significant levels of income to self-finance staff. Even those communities that do so, like Abriachan and Birse Community Trust, continue to depend on grant funding to carry out their projects. 

One often encounters the assumption that community buy-outs enable communities to become more self-reliant and economically independent. Petra Vergunst's study has shown that asset ownership indeed makes a positive contribution to economic regeneration, but so do projects in which co-managed and leased assets and common property are developed. As the Scottish Community Empowerment Action Plan that was launched in March rightly points out: community asset management contributes to the empowerment of communities. There is therefore a strong case for continued support for even the smallest community asset development projects as they advance economic regeneration and can be the seed from which more enhancing asset development projects grow.

Petra Vergunst is an expert in sustainable community development who aims to inspire, inform and support communities through research, writing, training, public talks and advice. Her website is www.sustainablecommunitydevelopment.co.uk.