WIREDGOV

It’s vital that Scotland’s communities benefit from our renewable energy resources. This paper has new proposals to strengthen our guidance for community benefits from onshore renewables projects, including on fund levels, technologies, governance, distribution, and support for communities.

Introduction

Scotland is an energy-rich nation, whose resources are playing a major role in the UK-wide transition to clean power and net zero. The Scottish Government is determined that communities across our country – and particularly those living alongside energy developments – feel the benefits of this success. As such, we are seeking your views on our proposals to improve the Good Practice Principles for Community Benefits from Onshore Renewable Energy Developments.

Our approach to the renewables transition is focused not only on the climate and energy security benefits of homegrown renewable power and reduced emissions, but also the wider opportunities this can bring to local economies and communities. This is central to our priorities of tackling the climate emergency and growing our economy. Community benefits play a key part in achieving this vision for a just transition to net zero.

Community benefits are voluntary provisions made by an energy developer to the community (or more than one community) located near a development. This is most commonly provided through annual funds, but can also take other forms of benefit agreed between communities and developers. When shaped by each local community to reflect their needs and priorities, community benefits can offer transformative and long-lasting investment for decades to come.

For over 10 years, Scotland has led the way in establishing the provision of community benefits as a common and expected practice across our renewables sector. Our Good Practice Principles – first published in 2014 and updated in 2019 – set clear national standards and guidance for developers and communities. They also empower communities to work with energy developers in determining the right package of benefits for them.

Our national Register of Community Benefits shows that in 2025, communities across Scotland were offered around £30 million in benefits. As we look ahead to the investment that continued growth in Scotland’s renewable and energy storage projects will bring, this refresh of the Good Practice Principles is an opportunity to build on progress to date and learn from experience gained across Scotland. We want our guidance to be fit for the future, strengthening its role as a best practice tool for communities and developers.

That is why we have consulted on and reviewed our Good Practice Principles – engaging with industry bodies, third and public sector bodies, and community groups across Scotland – to develop the policy proposals in this paper. Based on this engagement, the proposals include improvements to the guidance for community benefit funds, and further actions to support communities to engage with developers, secure long-term community benefits, and make the most of these arrangements. Updates to the Good Practice Principles for Community Benefits from Offshore Renewable Energy Developments will be published separately.

The Scottish Government cannot require developers to provide community benefits, as the powers to do so are reserved to the UK Government. We have therefore been pressing the UK Government to mandate community benefits from mature onshore renewable developments, along with a robust voluntary framework for emerging technologies. We welcome the UK Government’s ongoing work to strengthen its approach to community benefits, as it continues to consider potential measures to mandate the provision of community benefit funds. We will work closely with the UK Government to ensure that any potential GB-wide mandatory schemes work well within the Scottish energy landscape and the context of Scottish Government guidance.

The proposals in this paper do not cover every aspect that will be part of our final updated Good Practice Principles. The paper focuses on four key policy priorities where the Good Practice Principles could be strengthened, which we have identified based on:

• the findings of our consultation in 2025;
• Community Conversations by the Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC) commissioned by the Scottish Government; and
• in-depth engagement with the community benefits Onshore Review Advisory Group, covering industry bodies, community groups, and key third and public sector groups.

This working paper therefore seeks your views on our policy proposals for the following aspects of the Good Practice Principles refresh:

1. The technologies in scope of the Good Practice Principles, and the approach to ‘co-located’ developments.
2. The community benefit fund levels recommended by the Good Practice Principles.
3. Principles and guidance for the governance and distribution of community benefit funds.
4. Measures to support communities and build their capacity to engage with and fully benefit from community benefit funds.

Each section has key questions to consider on the proposals, and we welcome views on this or other areas of the proposed policy. Following publication of this paper, we will engage further to help refine these proposals ahead of developing the final updated Good Practice Principles. This engagement will include gathering views through our online Dialogue platform, and a series of regional discussion events to gather feedback from across Scotland. Ministers will also hold roundtable discussions with community groups and developers. Our aim will be to hear from all those with an interest in community benefits. The voices of citizens, communities, industry, and public and third sector stakeholders are vital to making sure our Good Practice Principles can help deliver lasting positive impacts across the country.

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