Land Reform for a Sustainable A Briefing Paper for MSPs August 2021 Introduction

The central policy challenge facing Scotland and consequently the is to chart a path through the Covid-19 pandemic’s aftermath and the climate emergency towards Introduction 2 a greener, wealthier, more inclusive and fairer Scotland. That necessitates a renewed focus Land Reform and the on land reform – defined as measures that modify or change the arrangements governing 1 Scottish Parliament 3 the possession and use of land in the public interest – as a crucial foundation stone from which to build towards that better future with its emphasis on the common good. Scotland’s Unusually Concentrated Pattern of Landownership 5 The purpose of this briefing paper from Community Land Scotland is to provide MSPs with an overview of legislative progress on land reform since and to show Land Reform and a Just Transition to ‘Net Zero’ 9 why further legislation is required early in the current session of Parliament to help achieve a sustainable Scotland. Sustaining Scotland’s Places after Covid Recovery 13 The paper highlights the close relationship between land ownership and and the scope for Scotland’s unusually concentrated pattern of land ownership to act as a Land Reform in the Public Interest: structural barrier to the sustainable development of local communities. It draws on findings A Programme of Legislative Action 15 and recommendations from a range of recently published research reports to illustrate the importance of land reform in tackling both post-pandemic recovery and the climate emergency in a fair and socially just way.

Community Land Scotland welcomes the prospect of a new Land Reform Act being introduced early in the current Parliamentary session. We are clear that the new legislation Cover images: should form part of a wider cross-cutting programme of progressive land reform in support Electric vehicle charge points on of a sustainable Scotland for the reasons discussed in this paper. West Harris (left) © Kristina Nitsolova and Midsteeple Quarter (right) © Becky Duncan / Open Aye

1. Land Reform Review Group (2014). The Land of Scotland and the Common Good. Page 16. 2 Land Reform and the Scottish Parliament

Scotland’s ‘land question’ has a long history, much of which is linked to the of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and their aftermath2. More recently land reform has established itself as a mainstream issue on Scotland’s public policy agenda. The establishment of the Scottish Parliament and cross-party support for reform has been pivotal to that mainstreaming process.

In his 1998 McEwen Lecture on ‘Land Reform for the 21st Century’, the then Secretary of State for Scotland, Donald Dewar, stated:

There is undoubtedly a powerful symbolism – which attracts me greatly – of land reform being amongst the first actions of our new Scottish Parliament3.

The symbolism to which Donald Dewar referred has been matched by a practical programme of land reform legislation brought forward by successive administrations and commanding strong cross-party support in Parliament. It includes the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 which introduced the Community and Crofting Community Rights to Buy during the first Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition Government.

The Scottish Parliament has pursued land reform since its inception, attracting strong cross-party support. 2. The Highland Clearances involved the often forceable removal by unscrupulous landlords of their tenants to make way for more economically profitable sheep and deer farming on their rural estates during the By Apasciuto (www.flickr.com/photos eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Consequently, early land reform measures gave crofters security of /apasciuto) shared under CC BY 2.0 tenure in relation to their crofts via the Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886. 3. Dewar, D. (1998). ‘Land Reform for the 21st Century’. The 1998 McEwen Lecture, Caledonia Centre for Social Development. www.caledonia.org.uk/land/dewar.htm 3 Further land reform legislation was passed during the Parliament’s fourth session between 2011 and 2016 during the SNP’s second Government. The Community Empowerment [The Community (Scotland) Act 2015 introduced the Community Right to Buy Abandoned, Neglected or Empowerment Detrimental Land and asset transfer provisions to enable community bodies to request to “ take control of land and built assets from Scottish public authorities. (Scotland) Act 2015] broadened the scope Importantly, that legislation also broadened the scope of the Community Rights to Buy of the Community originally introduced in the 2003 Act to include urban as well as rural communities, underscoring the relevance of land reform to all of Scotland. The Land Reform (Scotland) Rights to Buy originally Act 2016 introduced a Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement, a Community Right to introduced in the Buy to further Sustainable Development, and established the to 2003 Act to include ensure that land reform retains its place on Scotland’s public policy agenda. urban as well as rural communities, underscoring the relevance of land reform to all of Scotland.

Right: Govanhill Community Trust intends to reopen the historic Govanhill Baths building as a Wellbeing Centre, contributing to the regeneration of the area and meeting the needs and aspirations of the community. © Govanhill Baths Community Trust 4 Scotland’s Unusually Concentrated Pattern of Landownership 67% of Scotland’s “rural land has been Much of the policy impetus for contemporary land reform is linked to Scotland’s unusually calculated as being concentrated pattern of private rural land ownership, of which 67% has been calculated as being owned by 0.025% of the population4. Diversifying that concentrated pattern owned by 0.025% of of land ownership is now a well-established public policy objective in Scotland5. That the population. policy objective seeks to address the underlying structural power relationship between concentrated land ownership and land use that can act as a barrier to the sustainable development of local communities.

The close relationship between concentrated land ownership and land use, together with its scope for generating negative effects for communities in circumstances of concentrated ownership, was highlighted by the Scottish Government-appointed Land Reform Review Group in its influential final report, ‘The Land of Scotland and the Common Good’, published in 2014. It stated:

Ownership is the key determinant of how land is used, and the concentration of private ownership in rural Scotland can often stifle entrepreneurial ambition, local aspirations and the ability to address identified community need. The concentrated ownership of private land in rural communities places considerable power in the hands of relatively few individuals, which can in turn have a huge impact on the lives of local people and jars with the idea of Scotland being a modern democracy6.

4. Warren, C. (2009). Managing Scotland’s Environment. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 5. See, for example, the remit of the Land Reform and Review Group established by the Scottish Government in 2012 and Principle 2 of the Scottish Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement. [www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-land-rights-responsibilities-statement/pages/1/]. 6. Land Reform Review Group. (2014). The Land of Scotland and the Common Good. Page 165. 5 That impact was documented in the Scottish Land Commission’s 2019 report of its ‘Investigation into the Issues Associated with Large Scale and Concentrated Landownership in Scotland’7. It noted that approximately a quarter of those who submitted evidence to the Commission’s investigation felt that Scotland’s pattern of concentrated landownership has a negative impact on the ability to meet local housing needs. The report stated:

these experiences were all connected by a common narrative in which the power of a dominant landowner to control the supply of housing was a key driver of depopulation and economic decline8.

The Commission’s report also highlighted evidence of the negative effects that concentrated ownership can have on community and social cohesion, depending on how the power associated with concentrated ownership is wielded. It noted fear of repercussions for “going against the landowner” expressed by some respondents in their evidence, stating that:

this fear was rooted firmly in the concentration of power in some communities and the perceived ability of landowners to inflict consequences such as eviction or blacklisting for employment/contracts on residents should they so wish9.

The Scottish Land Commission’s accompanying report to Scottish Ministers made three recommendations for legislative action to address the negative impacts of concentrated landownership highlighted in submitted evidence.

7. The report followed a call for evidence by the Commission in 2018 for people to share their everyday experiences of living or working in parts of rural Scotland where most of the land is owned by a small Constructing new homes number of people. 407 people responded to the call, including landowners and land managers, community on the Isle of Eigg. representatives and individuals. © Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust 8. Glenn, S., MacKessack-Leitch, J., Pollard, K., Glass, J., and McMorran, R., (2019). Investigation into the Issues Associated with Large Scale and Concentrated Land Ownership in Scotland. Scottish Land Commission. Page 4. 9. Glenn, S., MacKessack-Leitch, J., Pollard, K., Glass, J., and McMorran, R., (2019). Investigation into the Issues Associated with Large Scale and Concentrated Land Ownership in Scotland. Scottish Land Commission. Page 4. 6 They include that:

 The Scottish Government introduce a power to apply a public interest test approval mechanism at the point of a significant land transfer;

 The Scottish Government introduce a requirement for landholdings above a defined scale threshold to prepare and engage on a management plan incorporating community engagement;

 The Scottish Government introduce a statutory review underpinned by Codes of Practice to ensure accountability in the operation of landholdings in relation to the principles of the Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement10.

Parliament passed a wide-ranging Scottish Government motion in relation to land reform on March 21st 2019, following publication of the Scottish Land Commission’s report. Part of that motion stated:

[That the Parliament] agrees the importance of ensuring that land reform continues to be a key policy priority to change the entrenched and inequitable pattern of land ownership in Scotland so that everyone can benefit from land and assets, both rural and urban, across the country, and urges the Scottish Government to support the recommendations of the Scottish Land Commission on how to deliver interventions in the operation of Scotland’s land markets Midsteeple Quarter is breathing and ownerships that will provide disincentives to the future accrual of large new life into Dumfries town centre privately owned land holdings and help deliver a more equitable distribution in by redeveloping empty High the ownership of Scotland’s land assets in the public interest11. Steet properties to create a new neighbourhood with a mix of uses built on principles of local prosperity and 10. Scottish Land Commission. (2019). Review of Scale and Concentration of Land Ownership: Report to Scottish Ministers. wellbeing. © Becky Duncan / Open Aye 11. Scottish Parliament. (21st March 2019). Official Report of the Meeting of the Parliament. Page 120. 7 The motion’s endorsement of land reform as a means to diversify concentrated land ownership in support of the common good resonates strongly with findings from a Scottish Government research report on ‘Attitudes to ’12 published in November 2020. 71% of survey respondents The report found that respondents consider inequality in landownership to be one of the “ three biggest challenges for the future of Scotland’s land13. It also confirmed that there supported widening is widespread public support for diversifying Scotland’s concentrated pattern of land ownership of both ownership. 71% of survey respondents supported widening ownership of both rural and rural and urban land to urban land to include more public, community and third sector ownership, while only 7% opposed that aim. include more public, community and third Other research participants also highlighted the importance of diversifying ownership for sector ownership, reasons of fairness, good stewardship and innovation so as to generate collective benefits. while only 7% As the report notes:

opposed that aim. Participants felt concentration of ownership was at the expense of the majority of people benefiting from the land, and that it had implications for access to and use of the land, as well as ownership14.

The issue of who benefits from the land is essentially an issue of fairness in society. That point may seem obvious, but it is nevertheless worth making because, as the next section demonstrates, how land is owned and used has profound implications for Scotland’s capacity to make the nation’s rural and urban places more sustainable and for addressing the climate emergency in a fair way.

12. Scottish Government (2020). Attitudes to Land Reform in Scotland. 13. The others are ‘climate change’ and ‘building on greenspace’. 14. Scottish Government (2020). Attitudes to Land Reform in Scotland. Page 31. 8 Land Reform and a Just Transition to ‘Net Zero’

In March 2021 the Scottish Government-appointed Just Transition Commission published its final report on how to ensure that Scotland’s goal of creating a net zero carbon emissions economy by 2045 is achieved fairly. That issue of fairness matters because an uncoordinated and unregulated ‘free for all’ in the race towards net zero risks deepening and widening existing inequalities in Scottish society by producing very clear winners and losers.

Nothing illustrates that paradox more starkly than the vital role of land in addressing the existential threat of climate change. The Just Transition Commission’s report is clear that more will be demanded of Scotland’s land as part of a huge investment programme to restore peatlands, plant many more trees and manage woodlands as an integral part of the drive towards net zero and beyond.

The report is equally clear that Scotland’s uniquely concentrated pattern of rural landownership presents a challenge to ensuring that the benefits of such investment are distributed fairly. It states that:

part of ensuring a just transition must be about making sure the benefits of investment in carbon sequestration are felt as widely as possible. Without careful design and meaningful engagement there is a risk that benefits may flow mainly to large landowners and opportunities for community benefit will The outdoors is the classroom for be missed15. Abriachan Forest School. © Abriachan Forest Trust

15. Just Transition Commission. (2021). A National Mission for a Fairer, Greener Scotland. Page 35. 9 Amongst the recommendations in its report, the Just Transition Commission calls on the Scottish Government to develop a statutory public interest test for any changes in It is deeply concerning land ownership above a certain threshold. That proposal is similar to the Scottish Land that consideration of Commission’s recommendation for a public interest test contained in its 2019 report into “ large-scale and concentrated landownership discussed earlier in this paper. communities’ role on the new elite frontier The need to achieve a just transition to net zero brings the dynamics of the rapidly evolving of land ownership and land market in Scottish rural estates into sharp relief. According to a recent article in The Scottish Farmer16 only 23 rural estates changed hands in 2020, yet the total value of the climate emergency Scottish estates sold last year increased by 43% to £100 million. An informed perspective seems conspicuous on the importance of the climate emergency in fuelling demand and value increases in the largely by its absence. land market is provided by Evelyn Channing, Head of Rural Agency for Scotland, at Savills:

The ESG agenda (environmental, social and corporate governance) is bringing buyers forward of all shapes and sizes, from small Scottish businesses to large charities and investment companies. As a result, the forestry and planting land market is booming: several new funds in the market have been competing aggressively alongside larger, more established investors from all over Europe and beyond. Other buyers are looking to offset carbon emissions produced elsewhere, by purchasing natural capital17.

It is deeply concerning that consideration of communities’ role on the new elite frontier of land ownership and the climate emergency seems conspicuous largely by its absence. Similarly, the continuing existence of an unregulated rural estates market with sharply escalating land values is far removed from the concept of a just transition to a net zero carbon economy. It is also unclear as to where the idea of retaining and building wealth within communities, for their benefit, sits with these new market dynamics.

16. The Scottish Farmer. (27th February 2021). New Era for Scottish Rural Land. 17. The Scottish Farmer. (27th February 2021). New Era for Scottish Rural Land.

10 Increasing community ownership and control of land and other assets is essential if Scotland is to achieve a just transition whereby the benefits of natural capital are distributed fairly in addressing climate change. In calling for “a national mission for a fairer, greener Scotland” the Just Transition Commission is therefore right to assert that:

the imperative of a just transition is that Governments design policies in a way that ensures the benefits of climate change action are shared widely18.

Part of that policy design imperative must be about increasing community control of land and other ‘green infrastructure’. ‘Community Landowners and the Climate Emergency’, a recent research report commissioned by Community Land Scotland19 highlights the diverse range of climate action initiatives that rural and urban community landowners are implementing locally, often in partnership with others.

They include managing ‘carbon sinks’ such as woodlands, peatlands and green spaces, generating renewable energy to meet local electricity needs, improving household energy efficiency to reduce fuel poverty, promoting active travel and low emissions transport, and promoting local food growing and access to healthy and affordable local produce. These are examples of climate action from the ground up, delivering tangible benefits for the communities themselves and for the wider common good as a whole.

Wind turbines on . © Community Land Scotland

18. Just Transition Commission. (2021). A National Mission for a Fairer, Greener Scotland. Page 12. 19. Community Land Scotland. (2020). Community Landowners and the Climate Emergency. [www. communitylandscotland.org.uk/2021/03/new-report-reveals-leading-role-played-by-community-landowners- in-tackling-the-climate-emergency/] 11 The need for further land reform to address the climate emergency also features in the final report of Scotland’s Climate Assembly, published in June 202120. It makes the following The Climate Assembly’s three recommendations for action in that regard: overwhelming support “ Empower[ing] local communities to manage underused, unproductive, and/ for ‘rapid and decisive or unoccupied land around them in ways that address the climate emergency action on land through rapid and decisive movement on land ownership reform; ownership reform’ Enhanc[ing] Community Right to Buy legislation to make it easier for represents a clarion communities to take ownership of unproductive land for climate action, call to Parliament for alongside providing clearer policy guidance on how community owned land further and bolder should be managed;

action. Introducing a pot of money for community projects (this could be ring-fenced money collected from Land Carbon taxes) to be invested in community-based climate action projects e.g. rewilding, peatland restoration, growing projects.

The Climate Assembly’s recommendations provide further evidence of the Scottish public’s support for land reform’s underlying principles, namely, changes to the ways in which land is owned and used in the public interest, as a means to address the climate emergency in a socially just way. The Assembly’s overwhelming support for “rapid and decisive movement on land ownership reform”21 represents a clarion call to Parliament for further and bolder action to build on the legislative platform of land reform that has been developed since devolution.

20. Scotland’s Climate Assembly. (2021). Recommendations for Action. 21. 90% of Assembly Members supported the recommendation. 12 Sustaining Scotland’s Places after Covid Recovery Community ownership “of land and other The Covid-19 pandemic has shone an unforgiving light on the structural vulnerabilities local assets provides of Scotland’s rural and urban places. As the worst of the pandemic subsides Government and Parliament’s attention is now rightly turning to navigating Scotland towards recovery a proven model for from its damaging economic and social effects. ‘Built-In Resilience: Community Landowners’ sustainable place- Responses to the Covid-19 Crisis’22, a joint report by Community Land Scotland and making to be rolled Community Woodlands Association shows that ‘anchor’ community trusts have played a critical role in supporting people living in their areas during the pandemic. These trusts out more extensively are also playing a key role in their local economies’ subsequent recovery. Some plan to in both rural and urban establish incubation spaces for local businesses. Others have been sourcing food locally, settings. both for shops and for delivery to people who have been shielding, vulnerable or self- isolating. New connections have been made with local suppliers and some community trusts are now providing services to vulnerable and disadvantaged people in their communities.

Responses such as these underscore the need to develop resilient communities with high degrees of social capital and related infrastructure that can be deployed to support their collective wellbeing. Community ownership of land and other local assets provides a proven model for sustainable place-making to be rolled out more extensively in both rural and urban settings. The key to its success has been the vital ‘enabling’ role of Community Trusts as local anchor organisations with the organisational infrastructure and capacity to respond rapidly and effectively to the local challenges presented by the pandemic.

The significant role of community-led approaches to post-pandemic recovery has been recognised in ‘If Not Now, When?’, the Report of the Social Renewal Advisory Board, published in January 2021 and chaired by Aileen Campbell, the then Cabinet Secretary for

22. Community Land Scotland and Community Woodlands Association. (2020). Built-in Resilience: Community Landowners’ Responses to the Covid-19 Crisis. 13 Communities and Local Government. In calling for action to “further shift the balance of power so individuals and communities have more control over decisions that affect their lives”, the report highlights the importance of making:

community ownership – buying land, buildings or other assets and then running them for the benefit of the community – easier for everyone so we get positive and sustainable outcomes and better places to live and work23.

The report goes on to recommend that the Scottish Government, together with local authorities and other public bodies should take action to make Community Asset Transfer and Ownership easier for communities to achieve.

The effectiveness of community-led responses to the Covid-19 pandemic further reinforces the urgent need to re-localise the design and delivery of core elements of Scotland’s economy including our food systems, energy generation and distribution, community health and social care services, and local transport provision. That calls for new, more de-centralised governance arrangements with genuine community engagement and empowerment hard-wired into the process of shaping both the design and delivery of such core elements locally.

Policymakers need to ensure that these reconfigured governance and delivery arrangements can implement a radically different vision of what constitutes ‘wealth’ at the local level, as measured against a more sustainable set of economic, environmental and social indices than those now used to calibrate economic progress. A vision in which that wealth is retained within (rather than extracted from) Scotland’s urban and rural communities and A community meal at the Kinning Park distributed on a substantially more equitable basis than is currently the case. Increasing the Complex in Glasgow. policy momentum, both for further land reform generally, and community land ownership © Hannah Clinch in particular, is therefore crucial to achieving sustainable place-making that stimulates local economic development, resilience and community wealth-building.

23. Social Renewal Advisory Board. (2021). If Not Now, When?: The Social Renewal Advisory Board Report. Page 48. 14 Land Reform in the Public Interest: A Programme of Legislative Action Community Land “Scotland was pleased This briefing paper illustrates that land reform has long been a policy concern for the to see the inclusion Scottish Parliament precisely because of its crucial role in contributing to the wealthier, greener, more inclusive and fairer society that MSPs collectively seek to achieve. of several of our Substantial progress has been made since the Parliament was established but Scotland’s proposals in various land reform journey is far from over. parties’ manifestos In November 2020, Community Land Scotland published ‘Land for the Common Good’, prior to the Scottish our manifesto for a sustainable Scotland in which we presented proposals that place Parliament election communities’ relationship with the land firmly at the centre of Scotland’s journey towards in May 2021. sustainability24.

We were pleased to see the inclusion of several of our proposals in various parties’ manifestos prior to the Scottish Parliament election in May 2021. It was particularly encouraging to see commitments from the , the Scottish Green Party, and the Scottish Labour Party in their respective manifestos to introduce a new Land Reform Act to legislate for a public interest test for large scale and concentrated land ownership and related measures, as recommended by the Scottish Land Commission in its 2019 report on large-scale and concentrated land ownership in Scotland. These manifesto pledges reflect the commitment to retaining land reform as “a key policy priority to change the entrenched and inequitable pattern of land ownership in Scotland so that everyone can benefit from land and assets”25 contained in the land reform motion passed by Parliament on March 21st, 2019.

24. Community Land Scotland (2020) Land for the Common Good: Community Land Scotland’s Manifesto for a Sustainable Scotland. www.communitylandscotland.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Land-for-the- Common-Good_CLS-manifesto-2020-2.pdf 25. Scottish Parliament. (21st March 2019). Official Report of the Meeting of the Parliament. Page 120.

15 Community Land Scotland welcomes the cross-party commitment to passing a new Land Reform Act early in the current session of Parliament. We are clear that the Act should Community Land contain provisions to ensure that public interest tests are applicable to concentrated and Scotland welcomes large-scale land ownership, as outlined in various parties’ manifestos and as recommended “ by both the Scottish Land Commission and the Just Transition Commission in their the cross-party respective reports discussed earlier in this briefing paper. The Land Reform Bill should also commitment to be framed sufficiently widely to enable the inclusion of other measures as appropriate to passing a new Land control and regulate land monopolies to protect the public interest, and to diversify land ownership, as outlined in various parties’ election manifestos. Reform Act early in the current session of Community Land Scotland further asserts that a new Land Reform Bill and associated Parliament. policy measures are necessary prerequisites to help ensure a genuinely just transition to a ‘net zero’ carbon society and to securing the sustainability of Scotland’s rural and urban communities. We are far from alone in making that assertion, as both the recent research on public attitudes to the objectives of land reform and the recommendations of Scotland’s Climate Assembly demonstrate.

We are also clear that further ambitious and progressive land reform offers a vital cross- cutting policy route towards a post-pandemic Scotland of sustainable, empowered rural and urban places that have experienced a just transition to a ‘net zero’ carbon society. Community Land Scotland therefore looks forward to working with MSPs and other stakeholders during the current session of Parliament on new land reform and related legislation to ensure that Scotland’s people benefit from Scotland’s land in fair, inclusive and sustainable ways.

16 [email protected] www.communitylandscotland.org.uk 07884 314297

@CommunityLandScotland @CommunityLandSc

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