Community Led Local Development (CLLD) is a new way of supporting local development projects using structural funds from Europe.

It aims to increase employment, skills, and social enterprise. It also ensures that local people are involved in developing projects, using resources in the area to address local challenges.

Urban Foresight was commissioned to evaluate two neighbouring Community Led Local Development (CLLD) programmes for Durham County Council.

This involved use of mixed-method data analysis to build standardised datasets for both programmes.

We also engaged with Local Action Groups. This supported the co-creation of data collection tools. It also facilitated regular checking of emerging information to helped identify and address gaps in knowledge.

We were able to define how participation varied by location and demographics. We also identified the underlying drivers influencing this to help improve service provision and address non-response bias.

Our interim findings were synthesised into a formative assessment report. This provided evidence and recommendations to inform improvements to the delivery of the remainder of the programme, and to achieve higher participation.