LEADER is a European Union Community Initiative aimed at promoting economic and community development within rural areas.
The Highland LEADER 2007–2013 programme has now been allocated £6 million by the Scottish Government. This is the Highland part of what is described as “the first tranche of money to be released under the £1.6 billion Scotland Rural Development Programme, designed to empower communities at the grass-roots level”.
This amount is a significant increase compared to the earlier LEADER+ programme (£2.5 million) which finished last year and is over 15.5% of the overall LEADER 2007-2013 allocation for Scotland (£38.5m). The level of the allocation is indicative that that the bid was both well written and well received.
No announcement has been made by the Scottish Government as yet about the Highland area’s share of the convergence fund (£19.2 million). This is the strand of funding that replaces the Highlands and Islands Special Transition Area scheme and will be another part of the LEADER programme funding.
Further detail about the official announcement can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2008/03/10143903.
Copies of the Bid and previous supporting documents are available here (all are pdf files):
General enquires should be made to Nicole Wallace or Patrick O’Sullivan:
Email: nicole.wallace@highland.gov.uk or patrick.o’sullivan@highland.gov.uk,
Telephone: 01463 702548.