About LEADER

The LEADER approach is a bottom-up, community-led approach to deliver funds from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE).

The term LEADER comes from the French acronym standing for ‘Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l’Économie Rurale’, meaning ‘Links between the rural economy and development actions’. In practice, it is a method of delivering rural development in rural communities where local people have the opportunity to take funding decisions at a local level in line with their Local Development Strategy, a plan that identifies priority funding for LEADER areas.

The LEADER approach is seen by One NorthEast and Defra, who manage the RDPE, as an important way of addressing rural needs and is based on a community led, bottom-up approach to rural development. It is important to note that as part of mainstream RDPE, the NEW LEADER programme has a stronger economic emphasis than previous LEADER programmes.

Northumberland Coast and Lowlands LEADER area has a Local Action Group (LAG) made up of public and private partners from the rural territory, including representatives from different socio-economic sectors. The LAG plays an important role in encouraging innovative responses to old and new rural problems and help to build local capabilities.

One North East, the Regional Development Agency, is responsible for managing the RDPE within the North East. One North East contracts with Northumberland County Council to manage LEADER funds on its behalf within Northumberland. In turn, the County Council contracts with Local Action Groups, who identify, develop and approve project activity within designated areas.