Scottish Land Reform December 10, 2014 12:00 am The Scottish Government is consulting on the future of Land Reform in Scotland. This follows the recommendations from the Land Reform Review Group’s report ‘The Land of Scotland and the Common Good’ which was published earlier in May 2014 (see http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2014/05/2852 and May Bulletin). The consultation seeks views on a proposed Land Rights and Responsibility policy and on a number of potential provisions for a Land Reform Bill. The proposals include taking forward legislative changes required in light of the recommendations of the Agricultural Holdings Review on the future of tenant farming, which are due to be released shortly. The interim report can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2014/07/5054. Views are also sought on: the setting up a Scottish Land Reform Commission to underpin land reform Improving the transparency and accountability of land ownership – by making public sector information on land, its value and ownership readily available and limiting the legal entities that can, in future, take ownership of land in Scotland providing powers for Scottish Ministers, or other public bodies, to intervene in situations where the scale or pattern of land ownership in an area, and the conduct of a landowner, is acting as a barrier to sustainable development facilitating proactive management of public sector land in the wider public interest by extending the powers of the Forestry Commission placing a duty of community engagement on charitable trustees, when making decisions on land under the trustees control ending the business rates exemption for shooting and deerstalking public access, to make clarifications to the core paths planning process as set out in Part 1 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. The full consultation can be found at https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/land-reform-and-tenancy-unit/land-reform-scotland Responses need to be made by 10th February 2015.
