Proposals and debates on patterns of landownership, highlighted by Stuart Fairweather
Mercedes Villalba, Scottish Labour’s MSP for North East Scotland, has just launched a consultation for her proposed Members’ Bill for Land Justice.
The bill ‘seeks to address the centuries old, concentrated pattern of land ownership in Scotland and to restore land for the many by introducing a presumed limit of 500 hectares on individual sales or transfers of land and on the aggregate amount of land any person can own, and by strengthening the regulation of Scotland’s land market by making land transfers over the 500-hectare limit subject to a public interest test’.
The current situation is remarkable: just 0.025 per cent of Scotland’s population owns 67 per cent of its private rural land. Villalba argues that ‘the high concentration of so much land in the hands of so few is central to the inequality that has blighted our country for centuries’, and states that it is unjust that ‘while many of us struggle to cover the basics like food, housing, and energy, a small number of individuals are buying up more land than they could ever need’. People can contribute to the consultation on Villalba’s proposals through completing this survey any time before 12 September.
In another indication of the growing centrality of issues around land ownership, the Reid Foundation have published a paper arguing that there is a major gap between the Scottish government’s progressive rhetoric and the actual reality. Calum MacLeod, the paper’s author, calls for ‘a much more radical and integrated approach to land reform to tackle the profound 21st-century challenges of the climate and biodiversity crises, reverse rural depopulation, and achieve a wellbeing economy based on a fair sharing of Scotland’s land wealth for the many, not the few’,
These initiatives will hopefully stimulate further debate on important matters which have been brought increasingly into focus over recent years. Whose is the land? Who is it for? How should it be used?
Former MSP Andy Wightman has made a major contribution to setting out issues around land ownership in historical context, including through his clearly-written books Who Owns Scotland (1996) and The Poor Had No Lawyers (2015). His refreshed website Who Owns Scotland is a crucial source of factual and legal information for campaigners.
It must be acknowledged that the Scottish National Party / Green Party government has recently consulted on its own proposals, and has a stated commitment to introducing a new Land Reform Bill by the end of this year. Many people and organisations involved in the issue, whatever their views on whether matters have progressed far enough or fast enough, acknowledge that ‘over the past two decades, the Scottish Government has pursued a process of land reform involving rural and urban land use, and ownership, and has sought to modernise property law and the fiscal systems that govern land ownership and management’.
Preparing the ground for her upcoming planned legislation, the SNP Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands, Maire Gougeon MSP, has signalled that it will provide ‘a real opportunity to ensure that one of the greatest assets this country has – our land – is owned, used and managed in a way that benefits the nation as a whole, and local communities, not just the individuals who own it’.
Nevertheless, it is already clear that the proposed legislation will be criticised by some for being too cautious – and Villalba’s proposed Members Bill and the Reid Foundation’s paper will feed into this debate. Others will point to the fact that even modest proposals that the government can and should ‘interfere’ with private property rights will lead to vigorous court challenges and rich property owners invoking their ‘human rights’.
As with other social and economic matters, a key factor is what pressure and influence can be brought to bear by people who organise around issues of land ownership, and their allies. From islander’s purchase of Eigg in 1997 to the recent community buy-out of Langholm Moor and Tarras Valley in southern Scotland, there’s been considerable media coverage of ‘community ownership’ and ‘community buy-outs’ – and these initiatives do point one route towards democratising the possession and management of land (Community Land Scotland’s website provides information on the approach, its achievements and resulting debates). But it needs remembering that only around 3 per cent of Scotland’s land is yet in community ownership. Since 2016, the government-funded Scottish Land Fund has supported the community purchase of just 0.1% of rural land – around 12,000 hectares.
People involved with the Scottish Land Commission seek to achieve an appropriate balance around the responsibilities that come with being employed by and being active around a government funded agency: promoting agreed proposals, at the same time as advocating the need for further radical steps. A range of other agencies, including Scottish Rural Action and a range of environmental charities, are well-engaged in the debates. Nevertheless, there is still much more to do so that the fullest range of progressive and democratic opinion can help shape a new and just settlement around land ownership in Scotland, including trade unions and other urban-based organisations and social movements. The discussions now surfacing on proposed government legislation and on Mercedes Villalba’s Members’ Bill are important opportunities to get involved.
Published 31 July 2023.