Industry opinion split over Land Reform Bill
THE long-awaited publication of the Scottish Government’s Land Reform Bill has polarised industry.
The legislation aims to change how land is owned and managed in rural and island communities and includes measures that will apply to large landholdings of more than 1000 hectares, prohibiting sales in certain cases until ministers can consider the impact on the local community.
The Bill also places legal responsibilities on the owners of the very largest landholdings to show how they use their land and how that use contributes to key public policy priorities, such as addressing climate change. These owners must also engage with communities about how they use the land.
It also includes a number of measures to reform tenant farming and small landholding legislation, providing more opportunities to improve land, to become more sustainable and productive and to ensure that tenants are fairly rewarded for their investment of time and resources in compensation at end of tenancy.
Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said: “We do not think it is right that ownership and control of much of Scotland’s land is still in the hands of relatively few people. .
“We will introduce measures so that more communities are being given information and the opportunity to take on ownership before sales from landholdings over 1000 hectares.
“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 make local populations and communities more sustainable.”
Leading rural organisation Scottish Land and Estates (SLE) slammed the proposals as a “destructive and disproportionate” attack on land-based businesses.
Sarah-Jane Laing, chief executive of SLE said: “The suggestion that a property going on the market should be lotted by government before being listed is absurd. The blizzard of regulations they are proposing around the transfer of landholdings will create conflict, cause market uncertainty and deter much needed investment.”
However, the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association (STFA) has welcomed the measures.
STFA chair Christopher Nicholson added: “These measures are all necessary to allow tenant farmers
fair access to future support schemes and markets which seek to reward biodiversity and climate change mitigation in addition to food production.”
The Scottish Land Commission (SLC) also backed the Bill. with its chief executive Hamish Trench saying the proposed measures are “significant steps towards a fairer and more dynamic approach to land ownership in Scotland”.
Rural affairs spokesperson for the Scottish Tories, Rachael Hamilton warned the “devil will be in the detail” and said the Scottish Government seems “hell bent on intervening in the rural way of life, rather than properly engaging with them and ensuring that proportionate measures are taken”.