Views from the South of Scotland feedback session

We held the first of our regional engagement events with community representatives in the South of Scotland. These are some of the key points raised by attendees. Do you have any views on the points shared?  

Technologies in scope, fund levels 

• The fund levels should be higher for all technologies, even if that results in developments not being ‘economically viable’ for developers 
• The current proposed benchmark fund level should be indexed linked with inflation so that if follows the rate of inflation. 
•  The community benefit fund level should be index linked against some other metric, such as a percentage of gross revenue earned per financial year. 
• There should be clearer guidance on fund levels for other technologies covered by the guidance, such as hydro. 
• Developers should pay the recommended fund level for each technology (e.g. wind or solar farm plus battery storage) even if they are built on the same site. 

Running community benefit funds 

• The guidance needs more detail on how governance/distribution of community benefits intersects with shared ownership. 
• The review periods and mechanisms for updating funds and fund areas need more detail and emphasis in the guidance. 
• The proposals are good for setting up new governance structures but also need to help communities improve what’s already in place. 
• The guidance needs to help communities and developers coordinate when several funds operate in the same place so the avoid duplicating work/creating new management structures.  

Support for communities 

• How will SG make sure that communities are aware of the resources being proposed? SG needs to make sure that lots of different routes are being used to reach everyone who needs them.  
• Paid roles to support communities are very important to ensure communities are able to get the most value from community benefit funds right from the start. 
• Communities need more practical, hands-on support and peer learning including real examples they can learn from. 
• Support needs to be tailored for new and experienced communities so they can build on what they already know and do. 

Views from the South of Scotland are an important part of feedback, and we want other people in the region to be able to see and feedback on issues raised at the session.