Land Reform (Scotland) Bill - Written Evidence to the Justice 2 Committee of the Scottish Parliament

increased diversity in the way land is owned and used - in other words, more variety in ownership and management arrangements (private, public, partnership, community, not-for-profit) which will decrease the concentration of ownership and management in a limited number of hands, particularly at local level, as the best way of encouraging sustainable rural development; and

increased community involvement in the way land is owned and used, so that local people are not excluded from decisions which affect their lives.

Will this Bill achieve these goals? In terms of the pattern of landownership, Scotland already has an incredibly diverse array of landholding types. What is needed is not greater diversity but a fundamental shift in favour of certain aspects of that diversity - namely community, not-for-profit and individual ownership.

The goal talks of private, public, partnership, community and not-for-profit - 5 different arrangements for landownership - and yet the Bill aims to advance only one of those, namely community ownership. There is nothing in this bill to promote the other 4 forms of ownership.

The paper concludes with a series of specific comments on technical aspects of the Bill.

Printer friendly versions - doc file,   pdf file