“We want to be a nation where rights and responsibilities in relation to land and its natural capital are fully recognised and fulfilled. That was our aim in 2016, and it remains our aim today.
“So, this Bill sets out ambitious proposals to allow the benefits and opportunities of Scotland’s land to be more widely shared.
“Too often, people and communities feel powerless when the land they live on is sold with no prior warning – this Bill will help to change that. We will introduce measures so that more communities are be given information and the opportunity to take on ownership before sales from landholdings over 1,000 hectares.
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“Crucially, when one of these landholdings is being sold, we want government to have the power to step in and require that it be sold in smaller parcels to different people if that will help to make local populations and communities more sustainable.”
What are the key parts of the Land Reform Bill?
The Bill is split into two main parts.
The second part deals with agricultural and environmental uses of leased farm land but it’s mostly the first part that is of interest to land reform campaigners.
The first part would make owners of some of the biggest landholdings consult more with the surrounding community about what happens on the land via land management plans and introduces the potential for large landholdings to be broken up into ‘lots’.
Many landowners already produce land management plans but there would be fines should a landowner not comply with producing a plan or engaging with the local community.
This is a necessary measure to ensure that landowners act in good faith to produce plans and meaningfully consult with local communities, tenant farmers and crofters in the local area. It is hoped this will lead to more collaborative approaches to land management and open up opportunities for more people to have access to land.
The government are currently considering the threshold for this to be the ownership of 1,000 hectares.
1,000 hectares will be considered the definition of ‘landholdings of significance’.
At the point of a land sale (of land above 1,000 hectares) a ‘transfer test’ may be triggered which means that Ministers will assess whether the landholding should be broken up due to negative impacts on the local community. This stops short of a stronger public interest test on the buyer/s of large pieces of land and of enabling public interest tests on land which is currently in ownership.
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The first part of the Bill also suggests ways to make it easier for community groups to buy land when it comes up for sale such as ensuring landowners give communities some prior-notice of sale, more time to register an interest, and, in certain cases, ownership of a large landholding may be transferred in smaller ‘lots’ at the point of sale, rather than as a whole, if it may make a community more sustainable.
This could be a potentially valuable measure for increasing land supply for local communities, as well as improving access for smaller landowners and businesses who cannot currently access land.
The Bill would also create a new Land and Communities Commissioner, within the Scottish Land Commission, who would be responsible for:
- the enforcement of the new community engagement requirements on landowners
- providing reports for lotting decisions
What are the problems with the Land Reform bill?
There are no land taxes for large landowners which, we now know, are supported by over two thirds of Scots. Land tax is widely considered to be an essential component of achieving real land reform
- Many of the requirements of land management plans are likely to be in secondary legislation. Many land managers/owners already produce land management plans. While this may mean that there’s not a large new burden on land managers/owners it may also mean there is a lack of obligations and disincentives to owning huge swathes of Scotland
- There is an abandonment of a stronger Public Interest Test on the buyers of land over large landholdings. This means there is no public oversight over who is buying land in Scotland
- The definition of ‘landholdings of significance’ is considered by land reform campaigners to be too high, with calls for it to be 500 hectares.
- The Bill will not cover landowners who own large parts of Scotland but in fragmented holdings which are individually less than the 1,000 hectare threshold
- There is a lack of legal obligations on landowners to protect our wildlife and natural environment in the public interest
- There are no disincentives to owning large parts of Scotland, and no measures to discourage mass land acquisition by corporations which work against the wider public interest
- There are no strong public interest demands on the face of the Bill for current and future large landowners
What happens next?
The Bill is currently at Stage 3, the final stage.
This is where MSPs can propose amendments – changes – to the Bill. These amendments are then debated and decided in the Scottish Parliament Chamber.
The deadline for amendments was Tuesday 7 October, and almost 400 amendments (391) have been submitted from MSPs and the Scottish Government.
These will now be considered and debated at the meetings held on 28 and 29 October 2025.
Once MSPs have decided on the amendments, they debate whether to pass the Bill.