Scottish Good Practice on Community Benefits leads the way for UK

Glenkens & District Trust, alongside Glenkens Community & Arts Trust and Glenkens & District Community Action Plan Steering Group, has joined organisations across Scotland in submitting an open letter in support of Scotland's good practice on community benefits.

In response to the UK Government’s recent working paper on community benefits GDT, GCAT and the Glenkens & District Community Action Plan Steering Group were among over 40 organisations from across Scotland who came together to voice support for Scotland’s good practice on community benefits by signing an open letter that can be found here.

Informed by over two decades of hard-won learning by local communities and project developers, the open letter highlights how Scotland now has the most experience in community benefits practice from renewable energy technologies in the whole of the UK.

All signatories believe that any future UK Government policy on community benefits should:

• Build on the foundation of good practice already developed here in Scotland

• Acknowledge there is a shared desire to go further and create greater impact

• Enable, not constrain, the continuing development of best practice

The open letter calls on the UK and Scottish governments to ensure future policies build on the “accessible guidance, flexible structures and good governance” already promoted in Scotland’s “world-leading” Good Practice Principles.

GDT has also submitted its own detailed response and a summary can be read here.

A full copy of the response is available on request to GDT at: info@glenkenstrust.org.uk.