Scottish Land Reform

A review into Land Reform in Scotland has issued a list of recommendations that suggests a radical shake-up of the land ownership system.  This would include an upper limit on the amount of land a single owner could hold in Scotland. 

The report from the Land Reform Review Group runs to 260 pages and makes 62 recommendations.  Among these are;

• improving the Land Registration system in Scotland, having greater transparency on the ownership of land by public authorities, and improving statistical information on the patterns of land ownership.
• a review of the Compulsory Purchase system in Scotland.
• the removal of the Crown Estate’s rights in Scotland.  This seems driven by the fact that the Crown Estate is responsible to the Treasury and the Scottish Government has no say in its running.  The overt ‘commerciality’ of the Estate is also seen as being detrimental to the economic development of the country as a whole.  Particular emphasis is given to the Crown’s rights over the seabed and the fact that this resource should be controlled by the Scottish Government instead.
• a continued push for local community ownership of land.  This includes simplifying the present right-to-buy procedures and providing financial and other support to local groups.
• the Rural Land Use Strategy (see http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/Countryside/Landusestrategy) should be implemented more rapidly across Scotland.  It is acknowledged that this will restrict landowners’ flexibility in how they use their land.
• there should be an upper limit on how much land a private land owner can hold.  This limit would be set in law, but no indication of what a limit might be is suggest in the review.  The report states that currently 432 private land owners own 50% of the private land in rural Scotland. 
• agriculture and forestry’s current exemption from non-domestic rates should be ended.  The whole issue of local taxation should be reviewed, with a Land Value Tax being introduced instead of rates.   
• a review of all tax reliefs and exemptions relating to land should be carried out.  The Review suggests that these should be discontinued unless there is a clear public interest case that the public benefits outweigh the income foregone.  With Inheritance Tax and Capital Gains Tax currently UK-wide measures the Scottish Government could not remove measures such as Agricultural Property Relief.  However, if Independence was achieved then the fiscal environment could change markedly.
• tenants under 1991 Act tenancies should not have to register to enact their right-to-buy if the landlord decides to sell.
• the Review largely left other tenancy matters to be dealt with by the Agricultural Holdings Legislation Review Group (see below).  However, the report states that what it calls a ‘conditional’ right to buy should be enacted for tenants under 1991 Agreements.  This would give tenants the right to purchase their farm in some circumstances, even if the landlord did not wish to sell. 

The full report can be accessed via – http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0045/00451087.pdf.  It is now down to the Scottish Government to consider the report and decide if it wishes to implement the recommendations.

Meanwhile the Agricultural Holdings Legislation Review Group has released its latest monthly progress report, see – http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/farmingrural/Agriculture/agricultural-holdings/review-of-legislation/Agriculture .  This is ahead of the group delivering its interim report next month.