Formal board meeting - paper 3 - Partnership Plan annual update - 26 September 2025

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Form­al Board Paper 3 26 Septem­ber 2025 Page 1 of 7

For inform­a­tion Title: Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan annu­al update Pre­pared by: Gav­in Miles, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Place

Pur­pose This paper sum­mar­ises the mon­it­or­ing frame­work for the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP) and iden­ti­fies some of the key areas where indic­at­ors show pro­gress or where officers expect pro­gress to be demon­strated in future after the third year of deliv­ery of the NPPP.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Board is asked to: α) Note the pro­gress sum­mar­ised in the paper and asso­ci­ated Annex 1.

Stra­tegic context

1. The NPPP iden­ti­fies the long term object­ives for the Nation­al Park that will sup­port the deliv­ery of the three long term out­comes for 2045 under the sec­tions of Nature, People and Place. Each long-term object­ive has an indic­at­or iden­ti­fied to help assess pro­gress to the long-term object­ives and out­comes. This paper sum­mar­ises the data avail­able for the indic­at­ors for ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅, the third year of deliv­ery of the cur­rent NPPP and iden­ti­fies the areas of sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress or of sig­ni­fic­ant chal­lenge and any changes in deliv­ery to address issues.

2. The indic­at­ors are made up of a range of data, some of which is col­lec­ted annu­ally or more fre­quently, some of which is only reviewed every few years, and some of which requires new work to identi­fy in future. They are inten­ded to be most effect­ive over the full life of the NPPP and in show­ing pro­gress or identi­fy­ing prob­lems towards the out­comes for 2045. Some are effect­ive indic­at­ors at this early point in the deliv­ery of the Part­ner­ship Plan. Oth­ers require more time to be effect­ive so can be sup­ple­men­ted with oth­er data or examples of work.

3. The Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund (NLHF) pro­ject Cairngorms 2030 (C2030) is now estab­lished an deliv­er­ing across its range of pro­jects, so some of the progress

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repor­ted here now reflects that increas­ing con­tri­bu­tion of the pro­ject to the Nation­al Park. The C2030 pro­gramme is repor­ted reg­u­larly to the Park Author­ity Per­form­ance Committee.

Stra­tegic policy consideration

1. Deliv­ery of the NPPP is at the core of the Board’s role and this annu­al update provides a stra­tegic over­view of the mon­it­or­ing frame­work of the entire Part­ner­ship Plan. It sup­ple­ments and should be read in the con­text of oth­er reports on work giv­en through the reg­u­lar Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer (CEO) updates to Board, oth­er board papers and reports to the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee, and the updates and inform­a­tion shared at board busi­ness ses­sions through­out the year.

Implic­a­tions

1. This year’s report uses a Red, Amber, Green (RAG) rat­ing and dir­ec­tion­al assess­ment to provide a more nuanced sum­mary against Part­ner­ship Plan object­ives, with the nar­rat­ive provid­ing a sum­mary of the evid­ence, rationale for the assess­ment and any sig­ni­fic­ant changes in work iden­ti­fied to address issues. The sec­tions below are inten­ded to pick out some of the key high­lights from the year but has a great­er focus on the object­ives that are cur­rently con­sidered at an amber or red state, either because of the prac­tic­al chal­lenges faced in deliv­er­ing change, or because work we expect to deliv­er change in future can­not yet be evid­enced to have done so. This is inten­ded to inform and to reas­sure board mem­bers and be con­sidered in the con­text of that many object­ives, tar­gets and indic­at­ors are for peri­ods bey­ond the five-year Part­ner­ship Plan timescale.

Sum­mary of pro­gress by ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅

1. The fol­low­ing three sec­tions sum­mar­ise pro­gress under the Nature, People and Place themes of the NPPP. Annex 1 to the paper provides a sum­mary of pro­gress and RAG rat­ings to the end of ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅.

Nature

1. The long-term out­come for People is a car­bon neg­at­ive and biod­iversity rich Nation­al Park with bet­ter func­tion­ing, bet­ter con­nec­ted and more resi­li­ent ecosystems.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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1. Of the 14 object­ives under the Nature theme, eight are con­sidered to be green, with high­lights includ­ing: the above tar­get deliv­ery of 2181 Hec­tares (Ha) of peat­land res­tor­a­tion; secur­ing £1.2 mil­lion of inward invest­ment towards Cairngorms Nature spe­cies con­ser­va­tion; the devel­op­ment of the Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan for the Nation­al Park; and the deliv­ery of pro­jects sup­por­ted via the Nation­al Park Authority’s Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund.

2. Six of the 14 object­ives are con­sidered to be amber, though the work on each is pro­gress­ing stead­ily and none are con­sidered to be excep­tions requir­ing any changes of dir­ec­tion in work: α) A4. Deer and herb­i­vore impacts. The object­ive is about redu­cing deer and herb­i­vore impacts on eco­lo­gic­al res­tor­a­tion tar­gets, and the indic­at­or relates to aver­age open range deer dens­it­ies in the five Deer Man­age­ment Group (DMG) areas of the Nation­al Park. Two of those groups have deer dens­it­ies with­in the tar­get range and anoth­er group is close and approach­ing it while and two groups have dens­it­ies that remain sig­ni­fic­antly above it but with work iden­ti­fied to reduce them. b) A5. Moor­land man­age­ment. The object­ive is about increas­ing the sus­tain­ab­il­ity of moor­land man­age­ment in the Nation­al Park to ensure great­er spe­cies and struc­tur­al diversity in moor­land areas of the Nation­al Park. While there are nation­al changes in the reg­u­la­tion of moor­land man­age­ment that will help this object­ive, accur­ate data on spe­cies and hab­it­at diversity will only become avail­able as the Cairngorms Nature Index is developed. c) A6. Gamebird man­age­ment. The object­ive is about ensur­ing that all pheas­ant and part­ridge shoots adhere to best prac­tice and that all gamebird releases are sus­tain­able and do not neg­at­ively impact on nat­ive biod­iversity. Work by Game and Wild­life Con­ser­va­tion Trust (GWCT) has estab­lished a baseline of the num­bers of gamebirds being released in the Nation­al Park and work will now focus on the impacts of releases on nat­ive biod­iversity. d) A12. Cairngorms Nature Index. The Cairngorms Nature Index will provide a sci­en­tific­ally robust way of assess­ing the health of eco­sys­tems in the Nation­al Park. Pro­gress to devel­op the index has been slower than expec­ted due to com­plex­ity of data and avail­ab­il­ity of expert staff, with com­ple­tion now expec­ted dur­ing 2026. e) A13. Spe­cies Recov­ery. The object­ive is about ensur­ing pri­or­ity spe­cies thrive and is linked to spe­cies recov­ery curves as part of Cairngorms Nature. The

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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f) People final report on the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan estab­lished a baseline and the next Cairngorms Nature Action Plan will estab­lish new tar­gets for spe­cies recov­ery curves. A14. Green Invest­ment. The object­ive is about increase private green fin­ance in nature recov­ery pro­jects and the while there is anec­dot­al evid­ence that invest­ing is increas­ing, as well as work to incentiv­ise it, the indic­at­or is based on data on Peat­land Code and Wood­land Code pro­jects registered, which is not yet avail­able at the Nation­al Park scale.

1. The long-term out­come for People is a well­being eco­nomy that works for all the people of the Cairngorms.

2. Of the 11 object­ives under the People theme, eight are con­sidered to be green. The high­lights of the year are: the imple­ment­a­tion of the Green Health refer­ral sys­tem in all the GP prac­tices of Badenoch and Strath­spey (a C2030 pro­ject lead by NHS High­land); the con­tin­ued sup­port for com­munit­ies via the Cairngorms Trust and Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Com­munity Led Loc­al Devel­op­ment (CLLD) fund­ing, as well as the suc­cess­ful devel­op­ment by numer­ous com­munit­ies across the Nation­al Park of pro­jects that help them; and the con­tin­ued suc­cess­ful recruit­ment and train­ing of volun­teer rangers, cre­at­ing a sig­ni­fic­ant addi­tion­al resource to sup­port vis­it­or man­age­ment and activ­it­ies of part­ners on the ground.

3. The theme also has the only object­ive across all of the NPPP that is con­sidered be red. That object­ive is: α) B1. Work­ing-age pop­u­la­tion, which aims to main­tain the pro­por­tion of young and work­ing-aged people in the pop­u­la­tion. This is prob­ably one of the most chal­len­ging object­ives with­in the NPPP as it attempts to change a nation­al and rur­al trend that is influ­enced by many factors out­side the influ­ence of the part­ners who deliv­er the Plan, includ­ing longer life expect­ancy and nation­al migra­tion trends. It has been assessed as red because the most recent census res­ults show both a reduc­tion in num­ber and pro­por­tion of young and work­ing-aged people. How­ever, for con­text, mem­bers should remem­ber that over the long term, the Nation­al Park has con­sist­ently retained a lar­ger pro­por­tion of young and work­ing-aged people than com­par­able areas of Scot­land. The work to increase sup­ply of afford­able and mid-mar­ket housing,

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sup­port a resi­li­ent eco­nomy and ensure fair pay helps to sup­port this objective.

1. Two of the 11 object­ives are con­sidered to be amber but for dif­fer­ent reas­ons: α) B4. Skills and train­ing. The object­ive is about increas­ing skills and train­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for people in the Nation­al Park and ensur­ing that green jobs can be filled by res­id­ents and under-rep­res­en­ted groups. Anec­dot­ally, we know that the Nation­al Park area sup­ports many green jobs and that some new mod­els for the man­age­ment of land can sup­port as many jobs, includ­ing using the skills of tra­di­tion­al employ­ees. One of the high­light ele­ments of work from part­ners also happened in Septem­ber 2024, with the Your Future Here event at the Mac­Don­ald Aviemore resort demon­strat­ing the value of Nation­al Park – focussed events work for both employ­ers and young people or oth­ers who want to devel­op their careers here. Nev­er­the­less, the data sources we wanted to use to help demon­strate pro­gress are not avail­able or suit­able, so we are look­ing at a range of oth­er data to show pro­gress. b) B10. A Park for All. The object­ive is about ensur­ing there are bet­ter oppor­tun­it­ies for a diverse range of people to enjoy the Nation­al Park and that the vis­it­or pro­file will be more diverse. Part­ners are sup­port­ing numer­ous pro­jects that encour­age people from dif­fer­ent back­grounds to vis­it and to enjoy the Nation­al Park. How­ever, the indic­at­or that we have chosen to sup­port the object­ive links the per­cent­age of black and glob­al major­ity group vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park to the Scot­tish pop­u­la­tion. The most recent data avail­able at the time of writ­ing shows a sig­ni­fic­ant increase in the pro­por­tion of those vis­it­ors though still short of the target.

Place

1. The long-term out­come for Place is a place that people want to live in, work in and vis­it that works for all.

2. Of the ten object­ives under the Place theme, four are con­sidered green and six are con­sidered amber. The high­lights of year span both green and amber object­ives, with the con­tin­ued deliv­ery of afford­able and mid-mar­ket hous­ing in Badenoch and Strath­spey via High­land Council’s Stra­tegic Hous­ing Invest­ment Plan, the estab­lish­ment of a 20-minute neigh­bour­hood tool as part of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (LDP), pro­gress in act­ive travel and pub­lic trans­port pro­jects as

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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part of C2030, con­tin­ued improve­ment to paths across the Nation­al Park, and com­ple­tion of the Nation­al Park Vis­it­or Sur­vey show­ing con­tin­ued high vis­it­or sat­is­fac­tion levels.

1. The six object­ives that are amber can be sum­mar­ised as: α) C1. Access to hous­ing. The object­ive is about ensur­ing, there is suf­fi­cient afford­able hous­ing stock to enable people to live and work with­in the Nation­al Park, with a tar­get of only 15% of hous­ing stock being second homes, vacant or short-term lets by 2040. While there are a num­ber of tax, Coun­cil Tax and short term let licen­cing meas­ures that may have increased the avail­ab­il­ity of some prop­erty for sale on the open mar­ket, the per­cent­age of homes in those cat­egor­ies over­all has changed little. b) C2. New Hous­ing. The object­ive is about as much new afford­able and mid- mar­ket hous­ing as pos­sible being delivered and reach­ing a tar­get of 75% of new hous­ing being afford­able by 2030. Sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress is being made in Badenoch and Strath­spey where deliv­ery of afford­able and mid-mar­ket hous­ing in Badenoch and Strath­spey via High­land Council’s Stra­tegic Hous­ing Invest­ment Plan is sus­tain­ing his­tor­ic­ally high rates, but demand remains high, and deliv­ery will not yet meet the 75% tar­get. c) C3. Hous­ing and com­munity bene­fit. The object­ive aims to secure the con­trol of hous­ing land with com­munit­ies and pub­lic bod­ies in order to deliv­er long term needs of the com­munit­ies. The object­ive is con­sidered to be amber because only a very small per­cent­age is under the con­trol of com­munit­ies or pub­lic bod­ies. d) C4. Vil­lages and town centres. The object­ive is to ensure vil­lages and town centres in the Nation­al Park are thriv­ing places where people live, shop and meet and its indic­at­or is red to 20-minute neigh­bour­hoods and the num­ber of prop­er­ties that fall inside appro­pri­ate cat­egor­ies of easy access to ser­vices. The object­ive is con­sidered amber because while there is now a tool avail­able to estab­lish a baseline and some pro­jects through C2030 that may increase access­ib­il­ity, the deliv­ery of those pro­jects will hap­pen in the future. e) C7. Trans­port to and around the Nation­al Park. The object­ive pro­motes a mod­al shift towards sus­tain­able and act­ive travel in the way vis­it­ors and com­muters get to, and every­one moves around, the Nation­al Park. The tar­get is simply to increase act­ive travel and pub­lic trans­port use with­in the Nation­al Park and is con­sidered amber because while there are a num­ber of pro­jects to

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f) improve infra­struc­ture, and change beha­viours, as well as some early indic­a­tions of change, these are all long-term pro­jects where the sig­ni­fic­ant changes in people’s beha­viour are expec­ted in future years. C10. Cul­tur­al her­it­age. The object­ive is to safe­guard and pro­mote the Nation­al Park’s cul­tur­al her­it­age and provide oppor­tun­it­ies for every­one to exper­i­ence and learn about the Nation­al Park’s out­stand­ing his­tor­ic envir­on­ment, his­tory and cul­ture. The indic­at­or is the num­ber of com­munity- led her­it­age pro­jects in the Nation­al Park and also has a tar­get of estab­lish­ing a cul­tur­al her­it­age net­work. A cul­tur­al her­it­age net­work is being developed by a pan­el of volun­teers to ensure it meets the needs of com­munit­ies and a grant fund­ing mech­an­ism for pro­jects is being developed to sup­port groups in future, but the impacts of both are yet to seen or eval­u­ated so the object­ive is con­sidered amber at this point in time.

Next steps

1. All part­ners will con­tin­ue to deliv­er their work and coordin­ate their work through the rel­ev­ant part­ner­ships or oper­a­tion­al struc­tures they have in place to sup­port it. Mon­it­or­ing of the plan and col­la­tion of data to assess pro­gress will con­tin­ue as part of that. The NPPP micros­ite will con­tin­ue to build fur­ther con­tent and use the mon­it­or­ing data with­in this paper to bring stor­ies to life for dif­fer­ent audiences.

Gav­in Miles Gavinmiles@​cairngorms.​co.​uk 05 Septem­ber 2025