Community Benefit Funds: Creating a Legacy

The community benefit funds associated with SSE Renewables Achany and RWE Rosehall wind farms have delivered substantial and enduring benefits for local communities and provided valuable insight into how such benefits can be maximised elsewhere.

Cumulative Benefits to Date

Achany and Rosehall wind farms are located next to each other near Lairg in central Sutherland. The two wind farms have invested £2.8 million in community benefit funding since 2010. To date, this funding is estimated to have:

generated wellbeing benefits valued at between £10.1 and £14.5 million;
supported the creation of around £11.8 million local economic value; and
enabled the creation of around 18 long-term jobs.

This implies every £1 of funding has generated between £3.56 and £5.12 in wellbeing benefits for the local area and around £4.18 in economic value.

These impacts are inextricably linked to the activity of five important delivery organisations. Community benefit funding has been instrumental in building capacity in these organisations and empowering them to drive social and economic improvements in the local area.

The Foundations of Future Prosperity

As well as generating value today, the two funds have also helped build essential stocks of human, economic and (particularly) social capital needed to sustain these benefits in the future. The value of these additions was estimated at:

£9.2 million in social capital;
£4.9 million in economic capital; and
£0.9 million in human capital.

The Value of Collaboration

The analysis shows how, when administered effectively, with the active engagement and support of local people, community benefit funding can generate substantial benefits and a legacy for host communities. It also shows the critical success factors that have enabled these benefits include:

a commitment to locally-led delivery by people with direct experience of the local challenges and in-depth understanding of local aspirations;
the provision of long-term support for and recognition of the value of local delivery organisations with the capacity to transform the ideas and aspirations of the community into reality; and
a collaborative ethos and collective approach to administration that amplifies community capacity and enables the delivery of large-scale, aspirational projects.