Discover what happened to the LEADER programme in Wales after 2023 and explore successor funding schemes supporting Welsh rural communities and businesses.
Written by Laura Bouttell • Wed 19th November 2025
Is there a LEADER programme in Wales? The LEADER programme in Wales ended in 2023 after running from 2014-2020 as part of the EU Rural Development Programme. The Welsh Government has replaced it with £227 million in successor funding across six themes, supporting farm-scale land management, environmental improvements, and rural business development without the LEADER brand.
Rural development funding in Wales faces a transition moment that mirrors challenges confronting rural economies across Britain. Following Brexit and the end of European Union structural funding, Welsh communities and rural enterprises that relied upon LEADER support find themselves navigating a transformed funding landscape. This isn't merely administrative reorganisation—it represents fundamental restructuring of how rural Wales accesses development capital.
For over two decades, LEADER served as the primary mechanism for community-led rural development across Wales, channelling tens of millions into local projects identified and prioritised by communities themselves. The programme's conclusion in 2023 marks the end of an era, yet the imperative driving LEADER—supporting rural economic vitality, environmental stewardship, and community cohesion—persists. Understanding what LEADER achieved and what has replaced it matters profoundly for anyone seeking to secure funding for rural Welsh projects.
The LEADER acronym derives from French—"Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l'Économie Rurale"—meaning "Links between actions for the development of the rural economy." This European linguistic heritage reflected the programme's EU origins, though its implementation in Wales demonstrated distinctly local character.
LEADER operated in Wales since the 1990s, evolving through multiple programming periods as EU rural development policy matured. The most recent iteration, embedded within the Welsh Government Rural Communities – Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, represented the programme's most ambitious Welsh incarnation.
The total value of the 2014-2020 RDP scheme in Wales exceeded £47 million—the largest-ever version of the scheme in Wales. This substantial commitment reflected both EU financial support and Welsh Government co-financing, creating comprehensive rural development funding infrastructure supporting communities from Anglesey to the Valleys, from Pembrokeshire to Powys.
How did LEADER differ from traditional grant programmes? LEADER employed a community-led local development approach where Local Action Groups—comprising community, public, and private sector representatives—made funding decisions based on locally developed strategies, rather than centralised government directives determining priorities from Cardiff or Brussels.
This bottom-up philosophy distinguished LEADER from conventional grant schemes. Rather than civil servants in Cardiff or Brussels determining priorities, Local Action Groups (LAGs) possessing intimate knowledge of their areas' needs made funding decisions. Wales hosted multiple LAGs, each covering distinct geographic territories with unique economic, social, and environmental characteristics.
The LAG structure ensured that a hill-farming community in Snowdonia didn't compete directly with a coastal tourism enterprise in Pembrokeshire, or an agricultural diversification project in Carmarthenshire with an environmental initiative in Ceredigion. Each LAG developed Local Development Strategies identifying their area's priorities, opportunities, and challenges, creating bespoke frameworks guiding funding decisions.
The Welsh Rural Development Programme pursued three overarching objectives reflecting contemporary rural development challenges:
Increase the productivity, diversity and efficiency of Welsh farming and forestry businesses, improving their competitiveness and resilience, reducing their reliance on subsidies.
Welsh agriculture faces persistent challenges: marginal land, difficult topography, climate exposure, and volatile commodity markets. LEADER funding supported diversification enabling farm families to generate non-agricultural income whilst maintaining land stewardship. Projects ranged from farm tourism enterprises to renewable energy installations, from artisan food production to agricultural contracting services.
This diversification imperative intensified post-Brexit. EU Common Agricultural Policy subsidies that sustained marginal Welsh farms faced restructuring under Welsh Government agricultural policy. Farms requiring supplementary income streams to remain viable discovered LEADER provided capital enabling diversification that market lenders wouldn't finance.
Improve the Welsh environment, encouraging sustainable land management practices, the sustainable management of our natural resources and climate action in Wales.
Wales possesses exceptional natural capital: upland landscapes, coastal ecosystems, ancient woodlands, and rich biodiversity. LEADER supported environmental projects delivering public goods that markets don't reward: habitat restoration, water quality improvement, renewable energy installations, and climate adaptation measures.
Projects like Pennal 2050 exemplified this approach. This initiative, which won the Landscapes, Nature and Forestry section award, provided local communities with responsibility for identifying and planning actions to cope with environmental challenges at landscape scale. Rather than imposing external conservation priorities, LEADER empowered communities to develop stewardship approaches reflecting local knowledge and priorities.
Promote strong, sustainable rural economic growth in Wales and encourage greater community-led local development.
Rural economies require diversified foundations. LEADER supported enterprises and community initiatives addressing local needs: village halls, sports facilities, cultural projects, business start-ups, and social enterprises. The programme recognised that economic vitality intertwines with social cohesion, cultural identity, and quality of life.
Over 700 projects received LEADER support across Wales during the 2014-2020 programme, creating and safeguarding over 4,000 jobs. These weren't merely statistics—they represented families maintaining rural livelihoods, young people finding local employment opportunities, and communities sustaining critical mass necessary for service viability.
Theory illuminates possibilities; practice demonstrates realities. Several Welsh LEADER projects exemplify transformative potential when strategic funding meets community initiative and entrepreneurial vision.
What was Project Helix's impact in Wales? Project Helix, the flagship LEADER success story in Wales, created 114 full-time jobs and safeguarded 472 jobs whilst generating £215 million economic impact in food and drink businesses through workforce upskilling, business start-up support, and growth facilitation.
Project Helix emerged as the programme's standout achievement, winning the overall award across all themes. This food sector initiative recognised that Welsh food and drink businesses possessed quality products and passionate producers but often lacked business acumen, market access, and growth capital necessary for commercial success.
The project's multi-faceted approach addressed these gaps systematically: business advisory support, skills training, market development assistance, and strategic funding for growth investment. The results vindicated this comprehensive strategy: beyond the 114 jobs created and 472 safeguarded, Project Helix facilitated 485 total job creations and safeguarded more than 2,600 positions across participating businesses.
This multiplier effect demonstrates LEADER's catalytic potential. Initial public investment enabled business growth generating sustained private sector employment and economic activity far exceeding original funding. A food producer receiving Helix support might hire additional staff, source from local suppliers, invest in equipment, and generate economic ripples throughout their community.
The Pembrokeshire Local Action Group, trading as Arwain Sir Benfro (Leading Pembrokeshire), secured over £3.3 million in LEADER funding supporting over 65 projects across the county. This substantial allocation reflected Pembrokeshire's rural development needs and the LAG's effectiveness in developing strategic priorities and supporting project development.
Projects ranged across LEADER's thematic priorities: rural tourism enterprises, community facilities, environmental initiatives, and business development. The Pembrokeshire experience illustrated LEADER's flexibility in accommodating diverse local priorities whilst maintaining strategic coherence aligned with broader programme objectives.
Pennal 2050 represented innovative environmental governance, empowering local communities to identify and plan actions addressing landscape-level environmental challenges. This bottom-up approach contrasted with conventional conservation practice, where external agencies impose priorities often disconnected from local knowledge and community priorities.
The project's award recognition validated community-led environmental stewardship as viable alternative to expert-driven conservation. Local people possess intimate knowledge of their landscapes, understanding seasonal variations, historical changes, and practical management challenges that distant professionals might miss. LEADER's willingness to fund community environmental leadership enabled experimentation with governance models balancing expert input with local agency.
Beyond flagship projects, LEADER supported hundreds of smaller initiatives collectively strengthening Wales' rural fabric: community centres refurbished, sports facilities improved, small businesses established, heritage sites conserved, and environmental projects delivered. These investments created tangible infrastructure and intangible social capital—networks, capabilities, and confidence enabling communities to pursue further development.
The evaluation evidence highlighted LEADER's added value beyond direct outputs: improved social capital through networks and partnerships, enhanced governance capacity within communities, and superior results compared to conventional funding mechanisms. These intangible benefits often matter more than measurable outputs, building community capacity enabling sustained development beyond specific funded projects.
Why did the LEADER programme end in Wales? The LEADER programme in Wales ended in 2023 because it was funded through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), which ceased following Brexit. The UK's departure from the European Union terminated access to EU structural funds, requiring Welsh Government to develop successor funding mechanisms.
This transition wasn't merely financial—it represented policy sovereignty shift. As an EU member state, Wales participated in Common Agricultural Policy frameworks including rural development programmes. These frameworks established funding mechanisms, eligibility criteria, administrative structures, and strategic priorities at European level, with member states implementing programmes within these constraints.
Brexit transferred rural development policy authority entirely to Welsh Government. This created opportunity to design funding mechanisms better aligned with Welsh priorities, freed from EU bureaucratic requirements. Yet it also imposed financial challenges. EU funds brought additional resources augmenting Welsh Government budgets; successor schemes depend entirely on Welsh public funds competing with health, education, and other spending priorities.
At the evaluation report's time, Welsh Government made no commitment to LEADER continuation beyond 2023. This wasn't necessarily programme failure—rather, recognition that changed circumstances warranted fresh approaches rather than mechanically replicating EU-era structures.
Welsh Government announced £227 million over three years supporting rural economy resilience and natural environment, responding to the EU Rural Development Programme's ending in 2023. This substantial commitment demonstrated continued recognition of rural development funding necessity, yet represented fundamental restructuring of delivery mechanisms.
What funding replaced LEADER in Wales? Welsh Government replaced LEADER with £227 million funding over three years, delivered across six themes: farm-scale land management, on-farm environmental improvements, on-farm efficiency and diversification, woodland creation, supply chain development, and community-led local development, though without the LEADER brand or structure.
The successor funding operates through distinct mechanisms rather than unified programme architecture:
This thematic structure maintains continuity with LEADER priorities whilst removing the Local Action Group intermediary layer. Projects apply directly to Welsh Government administering bodies rather than through community-led LAGs.
The Rural Community Development Fund continues as dedicated mechanism supporting community-led projects including community renewable energy schemes and energy efficiency initiatives. This represents partial continuity with LEADER's community development strand, though with narrower focus and reduced capacity compared to full LEADER programme.
The shift from LEADER to successor schemes carries significant implications:
Loss of community intermediation: Without LAGs making local decisions, funding decisions revert to government administrators in Cardiff. This risks losing local knowledge and community ownership that distinguished LEADER. Projects must convince distant civil servants rather than neighbours serving on LAG boards.
Reduced integration: LEADER's comprehensive approach spanning agriculture, environment, business, and community development enabled holistic local development strategies. The successor framework's thematic siloes risk fragmenting rural development into discrete policy domains rather than recognising their interconnections.
Administrative efficiency: Eliminating the LAG intermediary layer potentially reduces administrative overhead and accelerates decision-making. However, LAGs provided valuable project development support and local strategic oversight that applicants now lack.
Financial continuity: The £227 million commitment over three years represents substantial investment, though comparing directly with previous LEADER budgets proves complex given changed programme structures and timescales.
As Wales transitions beyond LEADER, understanding what made the programme effective informs both successor scheme design and applicant strategy.
LEADER's most distinctive feature—Local Action Groups making funding decisions—proved both strength and complexity. LAGs brought intimate local knowledge, ensuring funded projects addressed genuine community priorities rather than bureaucratic preferences. Yet LAG administration added costs and potentially inconsistent decisions across Wales.
The evidence suggests community intermediation added value justifying costs. LAGs didn't merely process applications; they actively developed projects, provided business support, brokered partnerships, and built community development capacity extending beyond specific funded projects.
LEADER balanced strategic framework with local flexibility. EU and Welsh Government established broad objectives and funding priorities, yet LAGs possessed discretion in interpreting these within local contexts. A coastal community's tourism strategy looked fundamentally different from an upland community's environmental priorities, yet both secured LEADER support.
Successor schemes risk losing this flexibility if administered entirely centrally. Standardised criteria applied uniformly across Wales may favour certain project types or geographic areas whilst disadvantaging others facing different circumstances.
LEADER recognised that rural communities and small enterprises often lack capacity to develop fundable proposals independently. LAGs provided development support helping applicants refine concepts, develop business cases, secure match funding, and navigate application processes.
This patient capital approach contrasted with competitive grant schemes rewarding applicants possessing pre-existing capacity to prepare sophisticated applications. LEADER aimed to build capacity, not merely reward existing capability. Successor schemes should consider how to provide similar development support avoiding bias towards applicants with professional grant-writing expertise.
LEADER refused false choices between economic development, community cohesion, and environmental protection. The programme recognised these objectives intertwine in rural contexts. A community facility isn't merely social infrastructure—it supports economic vitality by providing meeting spaces for enterprises, enables environmental action through community groups, and contributes to quality of life attracting and retaining population.
Successor schemes structured around narrow thematic priorities risk losing this holistic perspective. Applicants should emphasise multiple benefits and cross-cutting contributions even when applying to specific funding streams.
For Welsh communities and rural enterprises seeking funding in the post-LEADER environment, several strategic considerations warrant attention.
Where can I find rural development funding in Wales now? Welsh rural development funding is available through multiple Welsh Government schemes including the Sustainable Farming Scheme, community development grants, business support schemes, and environmental programmes, accessed through Business Wales, the Welsh Government website, and local authority rural development offices.
The fragmented post-LEADER landscape requires greater proactivity. Rather than a single LEADER programme, multiple funding streams exist across government departments and agencies. Successful applicants invest time mapping this landscape, identifying relevant schemes, and understanding eligibility criteria and application processes.
Resources include:
Given thematic fragmentation, applications should emphasise how projects contribute across multiple policy priorities. A farm diversification project primarily seeking business development funding gains strength by demonstrating environmental benefits, community employment, and cultural heritage contribution.
This strategic framing requires understanding policy priorities across relevant domains. Welsh Government emphasises decarbonisation, biodiversity conservation, Welsh language vitality, and foundational economy strengthening. Projects contributing to these priorities alongside specific scheme objectives position favourably.
Without LAGs brokering local partnerships, applicants must proactively build collaborations strengthening applications. Partnership benefits include:
Strategic partners might include local authorities, third sector organisations, agricultural groups, environmental bodies, cultural institutions, and private businesses. The key lies in demonstrating genuine collaboration delivering enhanced outcomes rather than mere letters of support.
Funders increasingly scrutinise long-term viability and legacy. One-off projects consuming funds without lasting impact face scepticism. Strong applications demonstrate:
This requires honest financial planning. Optimistic assumptions about future revenue or volunteer capacity satisfy neither assessors nor subsequent reality. Conservative projections acknowledging challenges whilst demonstrating viable paths forward serve better.
The evaluated LEADER projects offer valuable templates. Common success factors included:
Applicants should study LEADER case studies available through Welsh Government and Business Wales websites, extracting lessons applicable to their contexts and funding applications.
The end of LEADER marks transition, not termination, of rural development support. Welsh Government has committed substantial resources to successor schemes, demonstrating continued recognition that rural communities require public investment to thrive.
Several themes will likely shape future rural funding:
Climate change mitigation and adaptation: Wales has legislated net-zero emissions targets requiring rural land use transformation. Funding will prioritise projects contributing to decarbonisation, renewable energy, carbon sequestration, and climate resilience.
Biodiversity conservation: Wales faces nature crisis alongside climate emergency. Future funding will emphasise habitat restoration, species protection, and nature-based solutions delivering multiple environmental and social benefits.
Welsh language and culture: Rural Wales hosts concentrated Welsh-speaking populations central to language vitality. Funding increasingly recognises cultural sustainability as legitimate rural development objective.
Foundational economy: Welsh Government emphasises foundational economy—essential goods and services underpinning everyday life. Rural funding may increasingly target food systems, care services, housing, and local economic relationships strengthening community resilience.
Digital connectivity: Rural digital exclusion constrains economic opportunity and service access. Infrastructure investment and digital skills development will feature prominently in future rural programmes.
The LEADER evaluation evidence supported community-led development's effectiveness. LAGs delivered demonstrable added value: improved social capital, enhanced governance, and superior results compared to conventional schemes. This evidence may inform future Welsh rural development policy.
Welsh Government could design successor programmes incorporating community intermediation without replicating LEADER precisely. Options include regional development partnerships, community development trusts, or enhanced local authority rural development functions maintaining local decision-making whilst addressing LEADER's administrative challenges.
The principle matters more than specific structures: those closest to rural challenges often best understand appropriate solutions. Funding mechanisms enabling community agency within strategic frameworks deliver better outcomes than centralised administration alone.
The LEADER programme's conclusion in Wales represents both ending and beginning. An era of EU-funded community-led rural development has closed, yet the imperative driving LEADER—supporting rural economic vitality, environmental stewardship, and community cohesion—persists with intensified urgency.
Rural Wales faces mounting challenges: agricultural policy transition, climate change impacts, demographic shifts, digital exclusion, and public service pressures. These challenges demand strategic investment enabling communities and enterprises to adapt, innovate, and thrive. The £227 million successor funding demonstrates Welsh Government recognition of this necessity, though delivery mechanisms remain evolving.
For Welsh communities and rural enterprises, the post-LEADER landscape requires greater proactivity, strategic awareness, and partnership building. The supportive LAG intermediary has disappeared; success now demands directly engaging Welsh Government funding schemes whilst building local collaborations strengthening applications and delivery.
Yet LEADER's legacy persists beyond specific funded projects. Over two decades, the programme built community development capacity, established networks, demonstrated community-led approaches' viability, and delivered tangible improvements across rural Wales. These foundations remain, enabling communities to pursue development opportunities through whatever funding mechanisms emerge.
As the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle documented Britain's progression through successive generations of leadership, Welsh rural communities now write their next chapter. The brand may be different, the structures transformed, but the fundamental requirement persists: strategic investment in rural futures enabling communities to shape their own destinies rather than passively accepting external forces. The mechanisms may change; the imperative endures.
No, the LEADER programme in Wales ended in 2023 after the EU Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 concluded. The programme was funded through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, which ceased following Brexit. Welsh Government has replaced LEADER with successor funding schemes totalling £227 million over three years, delivered across six themes rather than through the LEADER brand and Local Action Group structure.
Welsh Government replaced LEADER with £227 million funding over three years, delivered across six themes: farm-scale land management, on-farm environmental improvements, on-farm efficiency and diversification, woodland creation, supply chain development, and community-led local development. These schemes are administered directly by Welsh Government agencies rather than through Local Action Groups, representing structural change from the LEADER model whilst maintaining funding commitment to rural development.
Yes, rural development funding remains available through multiple Welsh Government schemes including the Sustainable Farming Scheme, community development grants, business support programmes, and environmental schemes. Communities should consult Business Wales, the Welsh Government website, and local authority rural development offices for current funding opportunities. The Rural Community Development Fund continues supporting community-led projects including renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives, providing partial continuity with LEADER's community development strand.
The 2014-2020 LEADER programme in Wales supported over 700 projects worth more than £47 million, creating and safeguarding over 4,000 jobs. Flagship successes included Project Helix, which generated £215 million economic impact in food and drink businesses whilst creating and safeguarding hundreds of jobs, and Pennal 2050, which pioneered community-led landscape-scale environmental stewardship. The evaluation identified added value beyond direct outputs, including improved social capital, enhanced governance capacity, and superior results compared to conventional funding mechanisms.
LEADER employed a community-led local development approach where Local Action Groups—comprising community, public, and private sector representatives—made funding decisions based on locally developed strategies, rather than centralised government directives determining priorities. This bottom-up philosophy distinguished LEADER from conventional grant schemes, ensuring funded projects addressed genuine local priorities. LAGs also provided project development support and built community capacity extending beyond specific funded projects.
At present, Welsh Government has made no commitment to reintroduce a LEADER-style programme with Local Action Groups making community-led funding decisions. However, the LEADER evaluation evidence supported the effectiveness of community-led approaches, demonstrating added value through improved social capital, enhanced governance, and superior results. This evidence may inform future Welsh rural development policy design, potentially incorporating community intermediation elements within successor programmes whilst addressing administrative challenges identified in the evaluation.
Current rural funding information is available through several sources: Business Wales (the national business support service) provides guidance on available schemes and application support; the Welsh Government website publishes funding opportunities across departments; local authorities maintain rural development functions providing local guidance; County Voluntary Councils and similar third sector infrastructure organisations advise community groups; and professional advisors including agricultural consultants and community development practitioners offer specialist support. Regular consultation of these resources helps navigate the post-LEADER funding landscape.