Who owns Scotland's land?
Answer:
Half of Scotland is owned by just 500 people, few of whom are actually Scots. As Britain's great land-owning aristocratic families decline, a new breed of foreign laird is exploiting Scotland's arcane land laws to buy up tracts of the Highlands and islands - Europe's last great wilderness. In 2018/2019 it was reported that the largest landowner owns 221,000 acres (890 km2; 345 sq mi) of land in Scotland. The government believes 57% of rural land is in private hands, about 12.5% owned by public bodies, 3% under community ownership and about 2.5% is owned by charities etc.
Full answer here: Land ownership in Scotland
Land Reform for a Democratic, Sustainable and Just Scotland
Author / Creator: Laurie Macfarlane
Media type: Book
Date published: 2023
The ownership, governance and use of land in Scotland remains stuck in the past.
Forest Ownership in Scotland: Policy Review
Author / Creator: Jon Hollingdale
Media type: Report
Date published: 2023
Forestry ownership is intimately related to the multi-faceted requirements of land reform.
Small landholdings modernisation: consultation
Author / Creator: Scottish Government
Media type: Consultation paper
Date published: 2022
Views on proposals relating to the modernisation of small landholdings
Who Owns Scotland
Author / Creator: Andy Wightman
Media type: Website
Date published: 2022 -
Who Owns Scotland is a project designed to provide information about who owns land in Scotland.
Land and Property Titles by Country of Origin: Report
Author / Creator: Registers of Scotland
Media type: Report
Date published: 31 December, annually
Land titles with a UK owner address outwith Scotland represent just under a sixth of the country’s land area.
Community's Land. John Hutcheson on Community Land Buyouts
Author / Creator: John Hutcheson
Media type: Podcast
Date published:
They discuss the barriers raised against community land buyouts, how a potential Scottish Constitution could grant and protect additional rights such as the Right to Buy and why community ownership isn’t just for rural areas.
Highland estates and multi-millionaires bank £1m of taxpayers’ money from Covid-19 grants
Author / Creator: Ally Tibbitt
Media type: Fact check
Date published:
The data obtained by The Ferret shows that around £178m was paid to more than 8,000 recipients by Highland Council.
Community-based land reform: Lessons from Scotland
Author / Creator: John Bryden
Media type: Academic Paper
Date published: 2007
Drawing on insights from community-based natural resource management and local development, qualified evidence is offered suggesting that, as in the current Scottish case, community-centric land reform has a promising future.
The effects associated with concentrated and large-scale land ownership in Scotland: a research review
Author / Creator: Jayne Glass
Media type: Research review
Date published: March 2019
Central is the power that a landowner holds over local land use decisions and the extent to which local communities and other stakeholders can influence/inform those decisions.
Reform Scotland’s Land
Author / Creator: Common Weal
Media type: Video
Date published: 2020
Land reform is a social justice issue. How can democratic decisions about the kind of country we want in the face of a small number of landowners?
Back to Life: Mapping Scotland’s Alternative to Grouse Moors
Author / Creator: Lateral North
Media type: Policy Paper
Date published: December 2018
An illustrative map – based on real Scottish geographic data – showing what a reformed former grouse moor could look like.
Back to Life: Visions for Alternative Futures for Scotland’s Grouse Moors
Author / Creator: Common Weal
Media type: Policy Paper
Date published:
Of all the possible uses of this land, grouse shooting is not only the least moral, it is by far the least economically effective. In fact, almost any other use will create more value and more jobs per hectare.
Land Reform: Re-Shaping Scotland’s Social Landscape
Author / Creator: Dylan Howel
Media type: News Item
Date published:
Scotland has one of the most concentrated patterns of private land ownership in the developed world. Just 450 people own over half of the private land in Scotland. This entitlement has survived un-challenged for 500 years, a privilege that has its roots in royal favours and aristocratic archetypes
Public Land Value Capture: A new model for housing development in Scotland
Author / Creator: Common Weal
Media type: Policy Paper
Date published: Feburary 2018
This report outlines the case for public land value capture. A process by which councils, not those selling land, can benefit from the increase in land value due to changing use. It can reduce house prices by not passing that uplifted cost on to renters and buyers of the houses built on such land.