Land fund lottery cash dries up

Published on Friday 20 August 2004 02:50

THE future of the Scottish Land Fund, which has helped high-profile community buy-outs such as Gigha and North Harris, is in doubt after confirmation that it is unlikely to receive further lottery money.

The fund was set up in 2001 with 10 million and last year was topped up by another 5 million. Only in June this year the Scottish Executive announced that an extra 117 communities could benefit from the fund by extending eligibility criteria from settlements of 3,000 residents to those of 10,000.

It presently has a reserve of about 5.8 million, which has to be spent by 2007, having handed out over 9 million to 180 community projects.

A spokeswoman for the Big Lottery Fund, which administers the land fund, said yesterday: "It’s unlikely that the land fund will be topped up again. Lottery funding is supposed to go to short-term and specific projects and not supposed to be seen as central funding. So the land fund was set up with set amounts to achieve a lot and it still has a huge amount of money left to give out."

The move has concerned land reform campaigners with the flagship land reform legislation coming into force in June.

On Monday a steering group will be formed to take forward plans for a possible community buy-out of a 40,000-acre estate in Sutherland owned by the Vestey family. The land, which includes the peaks of Suilven and Canisp, is expected to go on the market for more than 3 million shortly. A public meeting on Wednesday decided to take the plan forward.

Alastair Macaskill, who chaired the meeting, said: "It would be a great concern to us if the land fund was not to be topped up as it would be pivotal to our plans."

Residents in the 4,600-acre Orbost Estate in Skye are expected to announce soon that they want to take over the land which was bought by Skye and Lochalsh Enterprise for 500,000.

A study is also being carried out into the feasibility of community ownership of the 93,000-acre South Uist Estate, which stretches from Eriskay to part of Benbecula.

Dr Jim Hunter, the chairman of Highlands and Islands Enterprise and a leading land reform campaigner, said: "The Scottish Executive and Scottish Parliament have invested a lot of time and effort in land reform legislation which is seen as one of the positive outcomes of devolution and delivered worthwhile results in places like Gigha.

"It would seem odd that having willed this legislation the Executive and parliament would then not make the effort to find the funds to enable it to be carried through."

Calum MacDonald, the Western Isles MP, has also written to Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, calling for the fund to be topped up.

The Big Lottery spokeswoman added: "If the Scottish Executive considers this to be one of their priorities they have to direct the DCMS [Department of Culture, Media and Sport] to direct us to put more money into the land fund.

"If it is not topped up it will commit the funds available and then that is the land fund [finished]. But the Executive could look at the work that has been done, decide that this is a great model and feel it needs to be continued to direct more money to come through the lottery. Or it could take it on board and use public funding."

A Scottish Executive spokesman said: "Discussions are taking place with the DCMS over the future of lottery funding and ministers are ensuring the importance attached to the fund is communicated.

"It is premature to comment on future funding while these discussions are continuing."

While the average land fund grant has been 20,000, some high-profile purchases have been helped with lottery cash.

Islanders on Gigha were given 3.5 million to help buy their island, although they subsequently paid back 1 million. Another 1.6 million helped the 4.5 million community purchase of the North Harris Estate, while 724,125 was given towards the 1 million purchase of Anagach Woods in Strathspey.