THE Scottish Parliament has passed a new bill which aims to tackle the concentration of land ownership among a small number of people.
The bill gives government ministers the power to step in when land sales or transfers of more than 1,000 hectares (defined as a large landholding) are being prepared.
This means that large landholders have to apply to the government if they want to sell, buy, or transfer land, and the government will in turn notify community groups, offering them the chance to buy the land, and could even decide to break up the holding into smaller lots.
Land reform campaigners have welcomed some aspects of the bill but have also criticised the Scottish Government for not going far enough.
After a marathon process of debating over 400 amendments over three days, the bill was voted through with 85 MSPs backing it, 28 opposing it, and nine abstentions.
The Conservatives opposed the “unworkable” bill, as they have done from the beginning, while it was backed by the SNP, Greens, and Labour.
According to research by former Scottish Greens MSP and pre-eminent authority on land reform in Scotland, Andy Wightman, around half of Scotland’s land is owned by just 420 people.
He has opposed the bill, saying that it introduces legalistic complexity to land ownership in Scotland without justification, and that the bill will have “little if any impact” in addressing the concentration of land ownership.
The Scottish Government and rural affairs secretary Mairi Gougeon – who introduced the bill – said the bill is designed to tackle just that imbalance.
In a statement yesterday, Gougeon said: “Tenant farmers and small landholders are vital to the fabric of our rural communities, and these reforms will help them to make a decent living on their holding and make improvements on the land they work on.
“It will allow them to work in a way that promotes sustainable and regenerative agricultural production, and – possibly most importantly – be protected from being removed from their holding without fair compensation.
“I am happy we are able to progress in consulting on the role of the tenant farming commissioner so quickly and I would encourage all tenant farmers, small landholders and crofters to make their views known.
“Scotland’s concentrated patterns of ownership developed over centuries, with ownership and control of our nation’s land in the hands of the few for too long.
“In future, communities will have advance notice of sales of large land holdings and ministers will have the powers to pause them to allow the option of a Right to Buy application to be explored.”
The bill will also pave the way for the creation of a land and communities commissioner, which will oversee the implementation of the bill’s aims.
The bill has been met with fierce criticism in some landowning circles, however.
Scottish Land & Estates, a rural business organisation that represents landowners, land managers, and land-based businesses in Scotland, said today:
“Perhaps uniquely, this legislation has succeeded in uniting landowners, land reform campaigners, lawyers, property agents and accountants – all of whom recognise that, whatever your stance on land reform, this is junk law.
“The reality is that many of the Bill’s provisions are so badly drafted that it will take years of additional work by government and others before they can be implemented in practice – and some may never come into effect at all.
“No one emerges as a winner from this – not government, not landowners, not rural businesses, not communities, and certainly not the taxpayer who will bear much of the cost of the added bureaucracy.
“The only likely beneficiaries will be lawyers, as property transactions become more complex and the prospect of this Act being the subject of a challenge before the courts.
“The Scottish Government says it wants to empower communities, yet it overlooks the fact that extensive rights for communities to buy land already exist.
“These powers could be used more often, but the reality is that demand for community ownership is far lower than activists claim.”
Andy Wightman wrote a briefing for MSPs in which he claimed there is “no justification” for the “significant administrative complexity and associated expense on landowners” introduced by the bill.
In a statement today (THUR), he added: “This bill purportedly aims to tackle Scotland’s concentrated pattern of private landownership, a pattern which over the past 10 years has grown ever more concentrated.
“But the key measures designed to achieve this will have little if any impact in the real world.
“Eligible landholdings are restricted to the very largest covering half of Scotland and predominantly in places well away from where most communities live.
“Few come on the market each year and the few that do are being sold for eye-watering sums of money.
“This bill will do next to nothing to reduce or have any influence on the pattern (whether concentrated or otherwise) of private landownership in Scotland.
“MSPs can pass all the stage three amendments they like to vary the scope, criteria, qualifications and definitions of parts of the bill, but it will make no meaningful difference to the distribution and ownership of land in Scotland.
“The complexity and administrative changes in the bill would be worthwhile if they led to significant change. But they won’t.
“I said at the beginning of this process that it would be irresponsible of parliament to impose new, complex, legalistic and bureaucratic mechanisms on the people of Scotland that will not deliver the outcomes that ministers say that they will.
“That is just making bad law. I stand by that today now the bill is passed.”
Community Land Scotland, a group which campaigns for Community Ownership of Scotland’s land, has backed the bill, saying: “Community Land Scotland welcomes the passing of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill on Wednesday 5 November.
“This is as a step forward for land reform legislation in Scotland.
“For the first time the state can proactively intervene in land sales and break up large landholdings if deemed to be in the public interest, such as helping to address depopulation, and if necessary for community sustainability.
The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill now awaits Royal Assent before it can become an Act of Parliament.