'Urgent action needed to empower Scottish community buyouts'

Attendees at the Community Land Scotland Annual Conference heard calls for more radical action to support community buyouts, which have stalled in recent years.

The event brought together more than 100 community landowners, academics and campaigners from across rural and urban Scotland.

The organisation has been supportive of the new Land Reform Bill. However, it is working with other campaign groups to call for stronger measures on areas like the number of landholdings the legislation will impact, ensuring public interest underpins decisions on who buys land, and including urban Scotland in the new measures.

The event featured an address from Land Reform Secretary Mairi Gougeon, who called on attendees to submit their thoughts on the new bill before the May 21 deadline.

Gougeon told delegates: ‘‘I want more people in Scotland to have more say in, and more benefit from, how our land is owned, and how it is used, and  how it’s managed."

She continued: "Despite many positive examples of community ownership over the years, Scotland remains a country where the ownership of land is heavily concentrated in the hands of a relatively small number of people and organisations.

"And I feel as uncomfortable as you when I see entire islands or huge estates changing between private hands. This is more acute when conflict arises with local people and communities, or secrecy shrouds who those people actually are, and their intentions, and how they are going to manage that land."

The event also heard from Michael Russell, the new chair of the commission and former Scottish Government cabinet secretary.

READ MORE: Scottish Land Commission chair calls for more 'urgency' on land reform

In his first major speech since being appointed last year, Russell said he would back urgent action on land reform and called for a wider support base to achieve high levels of reform.

"There are of course currently significant financial headwinds which we need to overcome particularly in re-energising the process of community buyouts which has become stalled because of the rise in land prices and the pressure on public finances," he said.

Delegates representing communities from Lewis to the Borders discussed a wide range of issues including the housing crisis, how to secure financial stability, the importance of language and culture, and the concentration of land ownership in so few hands.

READ MORE: 'Strong support' for reform to Scottish land ownership, says poll

Community Land Scotland will now produce a declaration from Scotland's community landowners following the event, exploring the key issues in expanding community ownership.

Dr Josh Doble, Community Land Scotland’s policy manager, said:  ‘The discussion we had at the Conference showed there is a clear need and desire for change in who owns Scotland’s Land. Delegates made clear that we need a much more robust Land Reform Bill to address the concentration of landownership around the whole of Scotland and to empower communities to lead the sustainable development of their local areas.

"Community Land Scotland were pleased to hear the Cabinet Secretary's concern about the deep inequality embedded in Scotland’s highly concentrated landownership as well as the Scottish Government’s commitment to the on-going process of land reform. We look forward to working with them and the Scottish Parliament to significantly strengthen the draft bill."