Landownership debate reopened

A sharp difference of views on land ownership has been exposed by the Scottish Land Commission’s call for landowners and tenant farmers to provide evidence of living and working in areas where landowning is held in a few hands.

Welcoming the opening up of the issue, Scottish Tenant Farmers Association chairman Christopher Nicholson said: “This is the first time that it is being examined from the perspective of people at the sharp end who are directly involved or affected by a highly concentrated pattern of land ownership.

“Tenants on the largest estates, such as Buccleuch, Atholl, Roxburghe, Dunecht and on islands like Bute and Islay, well know how a monopoly of landownership can affect their lives on a daily basis.

“In some cases this may be a positive experience and in others it may be negative, but in all situations the way in which the land is managed has a profound impact on peoples’ lives and is highly dependent on the attitude and behaviour of the landowner.”

However, landowners said there was no need for such an exercise saying all it was doing was echoing research published by the Scottish Government less than two years ago.

David Johnstone, chairman of Scottish Land & Estates (S&E), said: “It is two years since the recent Land Reform Act was passed

“We still await many of the provisions of that new legislation coming into force, with its implementation behind schedule, but already there is attention on rerunning debates that have already taken place.”

As far as landowners were concerned, he added it was far more important to consider what was being done with the land than who owned it.

The call for evidence will be open until 23 May. The Land Commission will be publishing its findings later in 2018.