Time to fire gun on new landownership laws

ASK a visitor to this country what images come to mind when they think of Scotland and they will invariably describe our stunning landscape. From the snow-covered Highlands loved by walkers the world over to the white-sand beaches of Harris and Lewis, Scotland is its land. Scots themselves will proudly boast of our glorious scenery. We would happily spend our lifetimes exploring this country and never leave... just don’t mention the weather.

So it is shocking that in 2016 and despite seemingly endless attempts at land reform, we are still in a situation where huge tracts of our beautiful countryside has been gobbled up by the super-rich as a means to store their vast wealth or as a parttime holiday home. Sadly, we report today on the murky nature of some of those super-wealthy Scottish landowners. Research by Global Justice Now Scotland details landowners’ links to the darker sides of global capitalism including worker exploitation, human rights abuses and a disregard for the environment.

While we are fortunate enough to have fantastic legislation that allows those of us who love the outdoors to roam on our mountains, islands and lochs, we, at the same time, give those with enough money a free pass to shut off some of our most unique and historic countryside.

The start of the Glorious Twelfth should focus our minds on this issue. The beginning of the shooting season is a time when many of those rich owners head to Scotland to hunt our game before heading back to one of their many homes around the world, leaving their Scottish estates lying vacant. Today we want to fire the starting gun on renewed calls for greater transparency on who owns our land and support moves to end the absurdly outdated landownership system.