The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, passed at Holyrood on Wednesday, November 5, is the most significant overhaul of land policy in nearly a decade. The legislation aims to tackle Scotland’s highly concentrated pattern of land ownership and modernise tenancy law, with new powers designed to promote transparency, sustainability and community benefit.
At the heart of the Bill are new rules for estates over 1000 hectares, requiring landowners to prepare Land Management Plans drawn up in consultation with local communities. A new Land and Communities Commissioner will be appointed to oversee these plans and ensure good practice in estate management.
Perhaps the most contentious measure is a new public interest test allowing the Scottish Government to intervene in the sale of large estates. Ministers will have powers to direct that land be divided into smaller lots or offered first to tenants, crofters or community groups where this is judged to benefit local development or reverse depopulation.
The reforms were warmly welcomed by the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association (STFA), which said the Bill marked a turning point in efforts to create a fairer land system.
STFA chair, Christopher Nicholson said: “For the first time, the Scottish Government will have powers to intervene in the sale of large-scale landholdings if considered in the public interest – for example, to address rural depopulation and create opportunities for tenants, crofters and communities to buy land.”
He noted that Scotland remains a country where 420 people own half of its privately held land, with growing corporate and overseas investment concentrating control even further.
“In the last 15 years,” Nicholson said.
“Scotland – already home to the most concentrated land ownership in the developed world – has seen further consolidation, with foreign and green investors acquiring vast tracts of land. While we are familiar with major names such as Anders Povlsen, Gresham House and Oxygen Conservation, who together hold around 450,000 acres, there are few areas where local communities and tenants have not been affected.”
Nicholson said the lotting provisions in the Bill were ‘a meaningful mechanism to tackle this inequality’ and would bring transparency to major estate sales.
“Ending ‘behind closed doors’ private sales will give tenants, crofters and communities a fair chance to buy,” he said.
He also highlighted other major changes, including updates to rent tests, better compensation for land loss and game damage, and a simplified waygo process when leases end. Tenants will also have more freedom to diversify into environmental or green projects – from tree planting to renewable energy schemes – without losing tenancy security.
An often-overlooked part of the Bill, Nicholson said, is the long-awaited modernisation of Small Landholdings legislation, last updated in the 1930s.
“These secure, part-time holdings under 50 acres could offer new entrants affordable routes into farming and revitalise rural areas beyond the crofting counties.”
He added that the final parliamentary debate showed ‘strong political will for further reform’, including future changes to taxation and support payments to encourage more diverse ownership.
“Other European nations show that regulated land markets deliver stronger farming sectors, more opportunities for new entrants, and more resilient communities,” Nicholson said.
“Arguments for the status quo from large landowners and green investors have lost credibility. Parliament has focused on evidence and fairness – and we hope these reforms are enacted swiftly.”
Rural affairs secretary Mairi Gougeon said the Bill would strengthen the rights of tenants and small landholders while ensuring land use supports sustainability and rural vitality.
“Tenant farmers and small landholders are vital to the fabric of our rural communities,” she said.
“These reforms will help them 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.”
However, NFU Scotland (NFUS) expressed strong reservations, warning that the reforms could undermine access to land for tenants and new entrants.
NFUS president Andrew Connon said: “Our position has always been that land reform must not compromise access to land for tenants or the next generation of farmers. We have concerns that this Bill does not align with this.”
He added that while the union supports proportionate land use responsibilities, the focus must remain “on how land is used, not who owns it.”
“Farming’s future depends on opportunity,” Connon continued.
“And for many, that opportunity starts with access to land. We must not undermine confidence in letting land. A thriving tenanted sector is vital to the health of Scottish agriculture.”
The union said it would continue to work with the Scottish Government on guidance and secondary legislation to ensure the system is ‘fair, transparent and workable’.
The Scottish Land & Estates (SLE) organisation said the new measures risk discouraging landowners from offering new tenancies and could deepen division between landlords and tenants.
SLE’s director of policy Stephen Young said: “Successive changes to tenancy legislation have failed to deliver the confidence for landowners and the opportunities for tenants that many across the sector had hoped to see in this Bill. Instead, the provisions further entrench an imbalanced and unfair framework that will discourage many from offering new tenancies.”
While SLE supports several aims of the Bill – such as improving claims for game damage, expanding rights to diversify, and standardising compensation – Young said the balance had tipped too far.
“In each of these areas, the position of an owner of land has been weakened more than was necessary to achieve the policy aims,” he said.
“More balanced measures could have delivered genuine benefit for tenants without eroding owners’ ability to make long-term decisions about their land.”
He warned that extensive secondary legislation would now be needed to make many of the new provisions workable in practice. “Instead of building confidence, it has created further uncertainty for both landlords and tenants,” he added.
Scottish Conservative rural affairs and land reform spokesperson Tim Eagle was sharply critical, calling the legislation ‘state overreach by the SNP into the rural way of life’.
“This is the latest example of an unworkable and devastating piece of SNP legislation that will severely damage rural Scotland,” he said.
“There is no doubt the measures imposed will have the opposite effect to what they claim — damaging rural businesses and reducing the land available for rent.”
The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill now moves into the secondary legislation phase, where detailed guidance and implementation rules will be developed. The government says it remains committed to a fairer, more transparent system of land ownership and tenancy — but as this week’s reactions show, Scotland’s rural sector remains deeply split on what fairness looks like in practice.