The Local Development Companies Network (LDCN) supports its members across both rural and urban contexts, ensuring that national policy and local action are aligned. We work closely with Government departments, agencies, and local authorities to provide real-time feedback from communities and to help shape development approaches that are practical, place-based and inclusive.
An important part of our work is the Rural Development Oversight Forum – a dedicated space where our members come together with external experts and policymakers to discuss emerging issues across this theme. This forum allows for timely reflection on the changing rural landscape and identifies opportunities for more cohesive and responsive development strategies.
We also facilitate shared learning across several key Communities of Practice, including networks for Rural Recreation Officers, LEADER Managers, Rural Social Scheme Co-ordinators, and Climate Officers. These spaces enable peer-to-peer exchange, promote consistency in delivery, and ensure that learning is captured and fed back into programme design.
We also facilitate network learning around urban development, creating opportunities for members to share experience and innovation in areas such as inner-city regeneration, community-led urban planning, rooftop gardens, and other sustainable uses of public space. By connecting practitioners working in diverse urban contexts, we help to spread effective models, highlight challenges, and promote integrated approaches that strengthen social cohesion and environmental resilience in towns and cities.
Our National Council, which brings together the Chairs and CEOs of all member Local Development Companies four times annually, also provides strategic leadership on rural and urban development, ensuring that issues raised locally are elevated to a national platform.
LDCs are embedded in the communities they serve, delivering development supports that are tailored to the local context. In rural areas, this may include enterprise support, heritage and tourism development, or infrastructure enhancement. In urban settings, it often involves community regeneration, social enterprise, and environmental resilience. Across both, LDCs support locally-led planning and implementation, combining economic, social and environmental aims.
LDCs are embedded in the communities they serve, delivering development supports that are tailored to the local context. In rural areas, this may include enterprise support, heritage and tourism development, or infrastructure enhancement. In urban settings, it often involves community regeneration, social enterprise, and environmental resilience. Across both, LDCs support locally-led planning and implementation, combining economic, social and environmental aims.
Whether in a remote village or a city-centre neighbourhood, development must respond to the specific needs of people and place, ensuring that all communities have the tools and resources to shape their own futures.
Effective rural and urban development builds resilience from the ground up. It supports population retention, local employment, environmental stewardship, and social cohesion. LDCs are uniquely positioned to deliver this impact, grounded in local knowledge and backed by strong community trust. LDCN ensures that their experience is captured, shared, and represented at the national level — helping to shape a more balanced and equitable Ireland for all.