Grants underline commitment to sustainable communities

Area:

Scotland

Programme:

Investing In Communities

Release date:

1 3 2007

The grants to the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust and the Assynt Foundation come from BIG’s Growing Community Assets programme, which helps communities obtain, improve, develop, manage, and protect assets that will help them become stronger and more sustainable.

Big Lottery Fund Scotland Director Dharmendra Kanani said: “Assynt and Gigha are names which go down in history as communities in the vanguard of controlling their own destiny with the help of Lottery funding.

Mr Kanani said: “The headline-grabbing buyouts were only the beginning. These latest awards from Growing Community Assets underline the fact that the Big Lottery Fund is an investor funder – supporting the sustainability of communities where they work to make change happen. We, like the people of Assynt and Gigha, are in this for the long game especially when a community asset can be grown to generate income and self-sufficiency.  And we send that message out to other communities, both rural and urban who might look for funding from Growing Community Assets.”

The Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust was awarded £266,508 for its project that will build four revenue-earning, environmentally friendly holiday homes from a farm steading, and refurbish a house and the island’s post office and shop.

David McDonald, Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust Manager said: “The community is working hard to become self-sufficient in generating income.  The environmentally friendly holiday cottages we look to develop from the redundant farm buildings at North Drumachro will generate profit that can be put back into the community trust’s housing maintenance programme.  When the community took over the island we inherited a £4 million of under-investment in statistically Scotland’s worst rented housing conditions. We have come on leaps and bounds since the buyout but still have a mountain to climb in order to improve the living conditions for people on Gigha. The Trust is delighted that the Big Lottery Fund, as a long-term investor in championing community regeneration and sustainability, has chosen to continue to support Gigha.”

The Assynt Foundation has received £57,556 toward the employment of a development manager for three-and-a-half years. The manager will develop the 17,950ha Drumrunie and Glencanisp Estate by overseeing the refurbishment of Glencanisp Lodge, provision of housing and jobs and the development of renewable energy.

Claire Belshaw, Chair of the Assynt Foundation, said: “This allows us to continue our initial progress towards making a difference to the choices available to the people of Assynt, in particular affordable housing, business enterprise and environmental improvements. Assynt Foundation is very grateful to the Big Lottery Fund for its assistance.”

For more information regarding this release contact George Anderson at:Big Lottery Fund Press Office (Scotland): 0141 242 1415

Notes to Editors

• Across the UK, the Big Lottery Funds rolls out close to £2 million in lottery good cause money every 24 hours, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across the UK most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project. The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004.
• On 1 December 2006 the Big Lottery Fund was officially established by Parliament and at the same time assumed the residual responsibilities of the dissolved National Lottery Charities Board (Community Fund) the New Opportunities Fund, and the Millennium Commission. The Fund is building on the experience and best practice of the merged bodies to simplify funding in those areas where they overlap and to ensure Lottery funding provides the best possible value for money.

SCOTLAND

The Big Lottery Fund has £257 million to invest in Scotland’s communities before 2009 as follows:

• £231 million for the Fund’s Unified Investment Plan (Investing in Communities)*
• £20 million for the Young People’s Fund
• £24 million for Awards for All (until 2006)

The Fund’s future funding plans are detailed in the manifesto ‘Investing in Communities'.

*Investing in Communities is the Big Lottery Fund Scotland’s new funding portfolio, which consists of four investment areas:

Growing Community Assets, to help communities obtain, improve, develop, manage, sustain and protect assets that will help them become stronger and more sustainable.

Life Transitions to support people at times of change in their lives – at different life stages and in different circumstances.

Supporting 21st Century Life to provide support to people and communities to deal with the pace of change, enjoy positive relationships, improve quality of life, and establish connections across 21st century society.

Dynamic and Inclusive Communities (DINC) to fund improvements to the capacity and infrastructure of national, intermediary or second tier organisations, to allow communities to engage in civic society and influence civic processes so that they can build strong and more inclusive local communities.

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