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Resources Paper 2-Analysis of funding provided to the community within the National Park

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 2 28 August 2026 Page 1 of 3

For Inform­a­tion

Title: Ana­lys­is of fund­ing provided to the com­munity with­in the Nation­al Park

Pre­pared by: Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Operations

Pur­pose

This paper responds to a request for ana­lys­is of how much expendit­ure has been dir­ec­ted to organ­isa­tions, indi­vidu­als, or busi­nesses with­in the Nation­al Park versus out­side the Nation­al Park.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Resources Com­mit­tee is asked to:

  • Note the inform­a­tion provided.

Stra­tegic context

  1. The Park Author­ity is com­mit­ted to tak­ing action in sup­port of com­munity wealth build­ing in its inter­ac­tions with organ­isa­tions, indi­vidu­als, and busi­nesses with­in or near to the bound­ar­ies of the park.
  2. It has scope to achieve this through the award of grant fund­ing in sup­port of com­munity ini­ti­at­ives, and also through its pro­cure­ment strategy.
  3. The Park Author­ity has recently taken action to improve the data col­lec­ted on both grant awards and pro­cure­ments and this data­set now provides inform­a­tion on the geo­graph­ic­al dis­tri­bu­tion of grants and contracts.
  4. The Cairngorms 2030 (C2030) pro­gramme includes the pro­vi­sion of a Com­munity Fund in which the com­munity has been involved in co-design. No awards have yet been made from this fund, but applic­a­tions will be received from the end of August 2026.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 2 28 August 2026 Page 2 of 3

Stra­tegic risk management

  1. Pro­cure­ment in Scot­land is highly reg­u­lated; how­ever, reg­u­la­tion is less strin­gent where pro­cure­ments are for goods, ser­vices or works that are of low value.
  2. The Park Author­ity applies the prin­ciples set out in the legis­la­tion to both reg­u­lated and unreg­u­lated pro­cure­ments but has scope to provide oppor­tun­it­ies to sup­pli­ers and con­tract­ors with­in the park. The pro­cure­ment strategy is expli­cit in requir­ing a bal­anced approach that observes the prin­ciple of open and fair com­pet­i­tion, as defined in legis­la­tion, while also seek­ing oppor­tun­ity to provide com­munity benefit.
  3. The Pro­cure­ment Man­ager is work­ing with the Engage­ment Team to offer advice and guid­ance to loc­al busi­nesses to enable them to bid suc­cess­fully for advert­ised procurements.
  4. There are a num­ber of meth­ods by which loc­al busi­nesses can be enabled to com­pete with lar­ger organ­isa­tions including
    • Edu­ca­tion and guidance.
    • Break­ing pro­cure­ments into sev­er­al com­pon­ents of smal­ler scale (known as ​‘lot­ting’).
    • Devel­op­ing lists of approved suppliers.
    • Cre­at­ing ​‘frame­works’ of pre-assessed loc­al suppliers.
  5. Care must be taken to ensure that such approaches, do not con­tra­vene pro­cure­ment regulations.

Geo­graph­ic­al analysis

  1. The newly developed registers for grants and con­tract awards have been used to provide data on the geo­graph­ic­al dis­tri­bu­tion of funds. The pro­cesses around com­ple­tion of these registers are in an early stage of oper­a­tion, and the data­set is not com­plete. How­ever, it does provide suf­fi­cient inform­a­tion to allow indic­at­ive ana­lys­is of geo­graph­ic­al spread.
  2. The res­ults of this ana­lys­is are shown in Annex 1. The data shows that
    • 100% of grants were awar­ded with­in the Park
    • 23% of con­tracts were awar­ded with­in the Park

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 2 28 August 2026 Page 3 of 3

*   Overall, 70% of grants and contracts were awarded to the benefit of the community within the Park.
  1. Of those con­tracts awar­ded out­side the Park, £1.4 mil­lion related to reg­u­lated pro­cure­ments; of this value, £1.1 mil­lion (80%) was for the Act­ive Com­munit­ies design work on the trans­port pro­jects, delivered under the C2030 pro­gramme. This con­tract was awar­ded to Mott Mac­don­ald and is ser­viced from their Inverness office.
  2. In total, there were five reg­u­lated pro­cure­ments dur­ing the year to 31 March 2026. Of these, one was awar­ded in the Park, two were awar­ded in Eng­land, and two (includ­ing that with Mott Mac­don­ald) were awar­ded to organ­isa­tions based else­where in Scot­land. Reg­u­lated pro­cure­ments are those of greatest value, and it is less likely that organ­isa­tions with­in the park will be able to meet the require­ments of the largest of these contracts.

Con­clu­sions

  1. The ana­lys­is provided shows the Park Authority’s con­tri­bu­tion to com­munity wealth-build­ing with­in the park.
  2. We aim to improve pro­cure­ment oppor­tun­it­ies for sup­pli­ers and con­tract­ors with­in the park through devel­op­ment of our pro­cure­ment approach. KPIs have been set up to meas­ure the pro­gress of this ini­ti­at­ive. We hope to see improve­ments towards the end of the 2026⁄27 fin­an­cial year.
  3. The dis­tri­bu­tion of the C2030 Com­munity Fund will add £1 mil­lion to the fin­an­cial resources already deployed in the park.

Louise Allen 10 August 2026 louiseallen@​cairngorms.​co.​uk