focus Friday 28 May 2021 [email protected] 5 focas Land question offers scope for consensus and action

Further land reform legislation was Scottish ministers, public bodies, the Government research on public attitudes support the latter’s legislative and wider passed during the parliament’s fourth Ministry of Defence, the Crown and to land reform found that 71 per cent of policy programme. session between 2011 and 2016 under large charities to be subject to a public survey respondents support widening Inevitably the an SNP government. The Community interest test and “greater public ownership of both rural and urban land and MSPs of a progressive disposition Empowerment () Act 2015 oversight”. Their manifesto also to include more public, community and will face strong pushback from the introduced the community right to buy includes a proposal that significant third sector ownership, with only seven landed elite and their allies against any abandoned, neglected or detrimental landholdings should be required to per cent of respondents opposing that land reform legislation they perceive as land and a community asset transfer produce a transparent land management aim. threatening to their interests. They are scheme to enable communities to take plan and be subject to a public interest They and , the new likely to portray the introduction of a control of land and built assets from test. Additionally, the Greens propose to cabinet secretary for rural affairs and public interest test, in particular, as public authorities. introduce restrictions on overseas islands, will be similarly aware of the unfairly undermining their often long LAND FUND BUDGET ownership of land, as well as regulating damaging effects of monopoly land held and extensive private property the sale of land of national or local ownership on the sustainability of rural rights and discouraging ‘investment’ Following that, the Land Reform significance. communities. These effects were into the rural economy. (Scotland) Act 2016 introduced a Land There is also cross-party consensus on documented in the Scottish Land These are difficult arguments to Rights and Responsibilities Statement, a other land reform measures. The SNP Commission’s 2019 report on large sustain in the face of an unregulated community right to buy to further government have committed to scale and concentrated rural land land market in which large tracts of sustainable development, and established doubling the annual budget of the ownership which highlighted fear of increasingly lucrative land can be the Scottish Land Commission to cement Scottish Land Fund to £20 million by “going against the landowner” bought and sold as trophy purchases land reform’s place on the public policy the end of the current parliament. The expressed by some research without any consideration of the wider agenda. The SNP government also Greens, Labour and Liberal Democrats respondents. public interest implications of such CALUM MACLEOD increased the Scottish Land Fund’s also committed to increasing the fund in The report noted that such fear was transactions. Even more so, given the [email protected] annual budget to £10 million in 2014. their manifestos. “rooted firmly in the concentration of levels of scrutiny experienced by Various commitments in the parties’ power in some communities and the communities seeking to use the various manifestos indicate that the new perceived ability of landowners to Community Rights to Buy contained in parliamentary session will include a inflict consequences such as eviction or current land reform legislation to help How far and how fast will further legislative phase of the land 71 per cent blacklisting for employment/contracts safeguard their own futures. the next stage of reform agenda. The SNP’s election support widening on residents should they so wish”. manifesto state: “We will improve The importance of land reform in Increasingly Scotland’s land reform Scotland’s system of land ownership, ownership achieving a fair transition to a net zero journey advance during the use, rights and responsibilities, so that carbon economy will not have escaped new parliamentary session, our land can contribute to a fair and just the government either. Not least because lucrative land society while balancing public and the Just Transition Commission asks CALUM MACLEOD… private interests. Both the SNP and the Greens have highlighted that very point in its recent can be bought “We will bring forward a new Land manifesto commitments to review the report on how to reach net zero by 2045. The SNP’s election victory on May Reform Bill. It will ensure that the Community Empowerment (Scotland) The government has committed to 6th ushered in a new session of the public interest is considered on any Act 2015 and to introduce Compulsory implementing all of the recommendations and sold as likely to be particularly large scale ownership and Sale Orders to support public interest- contained in the Just Transition dominated by Covid recovery, introduce a pre-emption in favour of led development. Commission’s report, including that of trophy purchases climate change and the constitution. community buy-out where title to land Against that background, the key developing a statutory public interest test is transferred”. issue is how far and how fast the next for any changes in land ownership above Far from undermining the prospects That much is clear from the portfolios stage of Scotland’s land reform journey a certain threshold. for land-based investment, a carefully allocated by last week Land reform has will advance during the new Supportive public attitudes to the designed public interest test on large to her new, slimmed down cabinet of 10 parliamentary session. principles of land reform, together with scale and/or concentrated land ministers compared to the 12 of her featured as a That will largely but not exclusively the importance of diversifying land purchases can balance community, previous administration. Deputy First depend on how well disposed the SNP ownership and use to secure both rural public and private interests in support of Minister is now cabinet distinctive and government is to early and sustainability and climate justice a sustainable rural economy. The secretary for Covid recovery. Michael transformative legislation to ensure that therefore make a compelling case for a challenge for both government and Matheson now has net zero and energy emblematic Scotland’s land is owned and used in the Land Reform Bill being passed early in parliament is to ensure that such a test, alongside transport in his brief and public interest and for the common the new Parliament. alongside other land reform policy is cabinet secretary policy area since good. measures to which they have for the constitution, external affairs and “Several interlinked factors come into MINORITY GOVERNMENT committed, are put in place at the culture. devolution play in that regard. Both cabinet The SNP’s status as a minority earliest opportunity to help enable On first inspection little appears to secretary Michael Matheson and the government adds a further dynamic to Scotland’s rural communities to thrive. have changed in parliamentary terms. Similar commitments to a Land new land reform minister, Màiri the future prospects for land reform. The SNP remain tantalisingly (from Reform Bill to control land monopolies McAllan, will be aware of the strong Particularly if the Greens decide to Dr Calum MacLeod is policy their perspective) short of majority in the public interest are contained in the public support for diversifying factor their various land reform director of Community Land respective manifestos of both the “Scotland. This article is written in a government with 64 seats. Of the Scotland’s uniquely concentrated manifesto commitments into opposition parties, only the Greens have Greens and Labour. pattern of land ownership. negotiations with the government as personal capacity. increased their tally, adding two seats to The Greens also call for land held by Recently published Scottish regards the basis on which they will @CalumMacleod07 the six they held at the beginning of the last parliament. The Conservatives have 31 seats, the same as their total in the previous parliament. Labour are down Land near the popular Fairy Pools in Skye was transferred from 24 seats to 22 and the Liberal using a community asset transfer, and development to Democrats lost a seat, leaving them improve facilities there has followed with four. None of that makes much difference regarding the constitutional question where the dividing line between the pro- independence SNP and Greens and

“ Photograph: WILLIE URQUHART union-supporting Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats remains as stark as ever. In contrast, Scotland’s perennial ‘land question’ offers scope for both cross-party consensus and significant legislative action in the new parliament in ways that apparently defy the constitutional impasse. That isn’t altogether surprising. Land reform — defined as changes to land ownership and use in the public interest — has featured as a distinctive and emblematic policy area for the parliament since devolution in 1999. MSPs passed the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 which introduced the community and crofting community rights to buy during the first Labour- Liberal Democrat coalition government. That administration also established the Scottish Land Fund in 2001 with an annual budget of £3 million to help rural communities buy land for themselves to own.