Community groups across the Highlands and Islands have a fresh opportunity to turn local ambitions into reality as Crown Estate Scotland opens its biggest Sustainable Communities Fund to date.
Almost £600,000 is available for projects including affordable housing, community infrastructure, skills, sustainable tourism and environmental improvements, with previous Highland awards already supporting communities from Sutherland to Kintyre.
The seventh round of the fund opened for applications on Tuesday 1 September and includes two separate grant programmes.
Community Capacity Grants of between £20,000 and £50,000 are available for the early development of community enterprise projects located within five miles of Scotland’s coastline or one of Crown Estate Scotland’s rural estates.
Eligible projects can include sustainable rural or coastal housing, climate resilience, community infrastructure, skills and enterprise, the circular economy, sustainable tourism, recreation and heritage.
A further £200,000 is available through Environment Grants, offering Crown Estate Scotland tenants awards of between £5,000 and £20,000 for projects capable of delivering environmental benefits within 18 months.
The Community Capacity Grants programme has £390,000 available, taking the combined value of this year’s funding to £590,000.
Since being established in 2020, the Sustainable Communities Fund has distributed more than £2.25 million across Scotland.
Previous recipients demonstrate the potential value of the programme for communities across the Highlands and Islands.
Scourie Community Development Company in Sutherland received £42,000 towards technical design work for nine affordable homes, while Kintyre Seasports in Campbeltown received £37,800 to expand vocational maritime training for local young people.
Anneli Hill, Head of Sustainable Development & Delivery at Crown Estate Scotland, said:
“We are delighted to be able to pledge almost £600,000 towards this year’s Sustainable Community Fund, a programme which has helped fund a large number of transformative community projects across Scotland and which empowers local people and Crown Estate Scotland tenants to bring about the changes most important to them.
“This year’s fund complements our recently published Corporate Plan, which sets out our commitment to protect and enhance Scotland’s incredible diversity in nature and to provide more support to our tenants and their ambitions.”
Campbell Fox from Kintyre Sea Sports said:
“Over the past four years the Community Capacity grant funding from Crown Estate Scotland has enabled us to introduce over 150 pupils from Campbeltown Grammar School to the world of pleasure craft, with more than 60 of them qualifying as dinghy sailors and powerboat drivers and a further four young people emerging as fully-fledged Royal Yacht Association qualified instructors.
“This ground-breaking community engagement project has attracted national interest as an example of how to provide maritime skills development, in an industry affected by acute shortages.”
Community groups interested in Capacity Grants must submit an expression of interest by 5pm on 25 September, while Crown Estate Scotland tenants have until midday on Monday 26 October to apply for Environment Grants.
Successful projects are expected to be announced by early March 2027.
For further information please visit the Sustainable Communities Fund page of Crown Estate Scotland’s website.
