FVL Local Action Group submitted its Community Vision Plan to the Scottish Government's Rural Communities Team in May 2026 listing the priorities and what the Local Action Group is looking to fund in the area. This vision plan is based on consultation work that we have undertaken which is re visited on an ongoing basis and an alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This allowed us to identify the following five strategic priorities which we feel are the most relevant to this area at this point in time:
The overarching theme is capacity building within communities and enabling community led projects in the rural area to move on from their initial development, or to take keys steps towards a larger more strategic project (by strategic we mean bigger than supporting just one community).
This is with a view to supporting key projects for the area to be taken forward, projects which are embedded in the community and which dovetail with other funders and funding that will come in future years - from any source (eg future CLLD, Shared Prosperity Fund, Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund, Place Based Investment Programme, Investing in Communities, etc)
This year the Forth Valley and Lomond area was allocated £380,090 Revenue and £74,478 Capital for projects which can be delivered before March 20267.
Capital grants of up to £15,000 and revenue grants of up to £30,000 per project will be awarded subject to approval by the Local Action Group that they are well thought through and fit with the priorities listed above. A minimum grant size has been set at £2,500.
Community Led Local Development CLLD is the term used to describe the method developed and promoted by the previous LEADER programmes which have been evolving in rural parts of Europe since 1991. It essentially delivers support to communities and businesses for very local grassroots development of rural areas in innovative and different ways. Until recently, funding for LEADER has come from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development with additional funding from the Scottish Government. Funding for CLLD is currently being provided entirely by the Scottish Government's Rural Communities Team.
There are seven key elements of the CLLD/LEADER approach outlined in the diagram below:
We encourage rural businesses and land mangers to apply to us too - particularly projects which involve land managers and communities working together.
