We are fortunate in the UK to live in a very beautiful country, and some of the most beautiful parts of it can be found languishing off the coasts of Scotland in the Hebrides, Shetland and the Orkney Isles. These rugged monoliths, defying time and tides, have some of the most mind-blowingly gorgeous scenery you will ever encounter. Island living however can be a slightly more challenging thing. We’ve written before about the challenges of island living, in the contexts of both agriculture, and transportation.

Our eyes were drawn this week to a non-governmental consultation being organised by the Shetland Community Benefit Fund, a community organisation funded by profits from a local renewable energy business co-owned by SSE and the Shetland Islands Council. The consultation asks local residents how the funds coming from the company to SCBF could be used to tackle the major challenges faced by the island. Particular problems identified are the exodus of younger islanders, poverty and inequality, housing supply and connectivity.

The initial published document “Shetland Today”, takes the form of a general issues paper, before laying out the future of the consultation and engagement process. September 2022- March 2023 will be an ‘ideas generation’ phase involving focus groups and surveys with the community and specific stakeholder groups. April 2023 to June 2023 will be an ‘ideas testing’ phase, in which more detailed community and stakeholder research is used to consider the initial conclusions and to start to set priorities for the fund. The final phase, between July and September 2023, is for business planning, where the SCBF will work out how the fund is to be administered and governed.

It’s a very interesting little exercise and it’ll be an interesting one to follow to see how things evolve. These sort of community organisations are becoming more common, and they tend to be linked to wider goals usually focussed on climate change. Here we have an interesting example where the reinvestment isn’t just looking to go into renewable resources and energy production, but an attempt at broader social contribution. It’s not the first such thing we’ve seen but it looks like a well-developed example taking an admirably consultative approach.

The question of what to do with windfalls has also become more debated in recent times with the recent passage of the Dormant Assets Act 2022, which expands the pre-existing dormant assets schemes enabling banks and building societies to pay money from any dormant accounts that can’t be traced into a fund to be used to support good causes. Whilst the Bill was being debated in Parliament there was some pressure to include commitments on consultation in how these funds were disbursed. In the end, the Act ended up including only a Government commitment to consult on whether they should be allowed to go to community wealth funds.

Much more work in the area has been done in Scotland and Wales, and the Shetland example is one we’ll be following closely. Particularly in complex geographies such as the Highlands and Islands, community is very important and exercises like this are very important. It’s one of the reasons we see consultation coming up a lot in Scottish (and to a lesser extent Welsh) politics. We’ll see how it goes, and what impact the consultation ends up having on how the funds are used.