The Scottish government has introduced land reform legislation to encourage community ownership by granting ministers powers to intervene in the sale of estates of more than 1,000 hectares.
In 2016 the last round of Land Reform made it easier for communities to buy out parcels of land, however the rampant rise in land prices – often now driven by so-called “Green Lairds” looking to cash in on carbon credits – have locked those same communities out of being able to afford to buy that land. With a few exceptions – such as in Langholm – the parcels of land being bought by communities have been getting smaller. A report published in 2022 found that despite a steady rate of successful community buyout projects continuing much as it had since the start of devolution, the actual hectarage of land transferred had all but stalled with around 97% of all community owned land in Scotland being transferred before the passing of the 2016 Act
This Bill has the potential to be another powerful, though incomplete, step towards land reform in Scotland but unless it is coupled to local democracy so that communities – not Ministers – are in charge of the process and to a mechanism of reducing the price of land – such as via a land tax – so that communities can enact their rights then all this Bill looks like it will do is pull power ever more tightly into the grasp of Scottish Ministers and give the Lairds (“Green” or otherwise) even more power to lobby those Ministers to maintain the status quo. This is not good enough and with a successful campaign under our belts to prevent this exact same kind of power grab within the National Care Service Bill, we do hope we can convince the Government to let go of this one too.