Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government’s spending plans include investment in a range of measures across the 2013-14 draft budget which will support rural development. Empowering communities is an important theme of both the Spending Review 2011 and the draft budget. The Rural Affairs and Environment portfolio has a particular focus on rural Scotland and ensures that all those living and working in rural areas contribute to and benefit from a strong, cohesive Scottish economy. A key element of our investment in rural Scotland is about new business growth and delivering and sustaining jobs in rural communities, in particular investing in Scotland’s food and drink industry, and in supporting primary sector industries (agriculture, forestry and fishing) and empowering rural communities.

The 2013-14 Budget includes a range of support mechanisms for rural paths including support from the Scotland Rural Development Programme Rural Priorities, Land Manager Options and LEADER programme and support from other public bodies.

The Scottish Government is committed to a high performing planning service that contributes to sustainable economic growth. In March, I announced the publication of the Planning Performance Framework, drawn up by Heads of Planning Scotland and the Scottish Government. The framework was devised to assess planning authority performance against a wide range of performance and service quality criteria including the speed in which authorities process planning applications. We are currently assessing the first set of annual performance reports under the framework and the most recently published statistics to examine where barriers to decision making occur.

In addition to the performance framework, we are taking forward a package of planning reform measures that aim to streamline the planning system, helping to speed up decision making, ensure applicants receive a better service and help deliver development. We have already made significant progress – we have permanently increased permitted development rights for householders reducing regulation, and are now taking forward more changes for non-householders; and we are improving handling of major development through the promotion of processing agreements and initiatives such as our planning protocol within Enterprise Areas. I am committed to maintaining momentum on planning reform and ensuring the system is proportionate and assists authorities to improve performance and improve service standards. A record of the progress made on these reforms can be found at the following link http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/planning/reform/Monitoring.

Councils are autonomous bodies whose powers are set out in statute and are entirely separate from the Scottish Government. It is up to each local authority how it prioritises its activities.

Responsibility for local economic development and local regeneration transferred to local authorities as part of the 2007 Enterprise Network Reforms ensuring better integration with other services delivered by local authorities that affect economic development such as planning, environmental health, consumer and trading standards. This gives local authorities a significant role in supporting their local economies. The Scottish Local Authorities Economic Development Group estimated in 2010 that local authorities had an annual spend of around £214 million on economic development activities. Community planning partnerships of which there is one for each local authority area, are expected to include in their single outcome agreements (SOAs) with the Scottish Government a focus on economic development. The National Group on community planning that was established after the review of community planning by the Scottish Government and COSLA earlier this year has agreed that new SOAs to be put in place in 2013 should include a clear strategic focus on key national priorities, including economic recovery and growth.

Local authorities are empowered to promote economic development, under the power to advance well being (Part Three of The Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 – Power to Advance Well Being) which is a discretionary power enabling local authorities to do anything they consider is likely to promote or improve the well-being of their area and/or persons in it.

The Power to Advance Well Being guidance set out some key factors which could contribute to well-being.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/04/19276/36158#b15.

These key factors included economic factors.

The Scottish Government and COSLA agreed a set of actions to strengthen community planning following a joint review they conducted earlier this year. Those include creating a new statutory duty on individual community planning partners to work together to improve outcomes for local communities through participation in community planning partnerships and the provision of resources to deliver single outcome agreements (SOAs). SOAs are expected to include a focus on economic development, which should thus fall within the scope of this new duty. Community Planning partners include local authorities as well as a range of other players, such as the Enterprise Networks and Health Boards.

Insight into the skills base in CCF communities is obtained through the CCF Community Action and Support Programme (CASP).

The CASP programme is open to any Scottish community tackling climate change. The agenda is developed in close cooperation with communities to ensure it meets their needs and currently offers a range of support and training covering aspects such as improving project performance, monitoring and evaluation, working with young people, understanding social enterprise, governance and reporting. The aim of the CASP programme is to improve the skills base in communities, and build capacity for the long term. The programme is delivered by the CCF administrator (currently Keep Scotland Beautiful) with additional resource contracted in where relevant expertise is not available in house. Outsourcing some aspects of CASP ensures that the programme taps into specialist expertise as required.

The administration of the Climate Challenge Fund was scrutinized by Scottish Government’s Internal Audit Division in 2010 and a follow up report was undertaken in 2011. The follow up report concluded that all recommended actions, including moving to a formal competitive tender for this work, were underway.

The administration of the fund is now delivered under contract and is therefore subject to appropriate contract monitoring and evaluation.