Land reform: How state-owned ground should be used to benefit the people and communities of Scotland

“We, the people, should own more of Scotland’s land, but the government should not be allowed and trusted to manage it,” a leading forestry expert has said.

Campaigners have a simple ask of the forthcoming land reform bill – for it to go further.

According to Willie McGhee, who has worked in both commercial and community forestry for the past three decades, “radical” measures are needed to give local people greater control over land in their area and the benefits it can generate – a central aim of the country’s land reform agenda, which aims to diversify ownership.

“The state should consider using its financial nous and experience in land acquisition and management to acquire more of Scotland’s land on behalf of communities,” he said.

“In that respect, the land reform bill needs to be more radical, and it needs innovative thought.

“It needs to be something that’s actually going to deliver for the people of Scotland.”

Land ownership in Scotland is amongst the most unequal in the world, with the majority of its eight million hectares held in a small number of hands.

Today the state is the single biggest landowner, with around 12.6 per cent of the total land mass held by public bodies such as the Scottish Government, Scottish Water, local councils, NatureScot and Crown Estate Scotland.

Forestry and Land Scotland, which has launched a land acquisition strategy that involves buying up ground to plant timber forests and tackle climate change, recently paid out more than £17m to purchase Glen Prosen in Angus in a hot land sales market. Picture: Getty Images

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The largest portion belongs to Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), about nine per cent of the total – approximately 640,000 hectares.

This compares to 90,000 hectares owned by Danish billionaire clothing tycoon Anders Holch Povlsen, the single biggest private landowner in Scotland.

Only around three per cent is currently under community ownership, despite long-standing reforms aimed at increasing this.

Willie McGhee, who has worked in both commercial and community forestry for the past three decades and is a board member of the Forest Policy Group think tank, with his dog Holly

And this looks unlikely to change any time soon, as a massive surge in demand for land continues to push up prices, putting community buyouts out of reach in many cases.

Mr McGhee, a board member of the independent think tank Forest Policy Group, believes state-ownership of land is a good thing but should bring greater benefits to more people, especially those living around it.

He said: “Why is Forestry and Land Scotland not buying land on behalf of communities and allowing them to manage the land and get the profits from whatever it is they do?

“Give them 99-year peppercorn leases or whatever is the best mechanism that will allow them to make the most of it.”

This map shows a snapshot of the registered extents of land held by a selection of public bodies within the Land Register. Credit: Registers of Scotland

FLS, which produces 3.2 million tonnes of timber annually – 40 per cent of Scotland’s production – launched a new strategic acquisition strategy at the end of 2021, with a mission to buy land to mitigate climate change impacts.

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The strategy will allow the agency to purchase land for commercial conifer planting, native woodland creation and peatland restoration, and ground with potential for boosting natural capital and other environmental benefits.

But public bodies must buy and sell land at market values and so can also lose out amid spiraling prices.

FLS was forced to shell out more than £17.5 million to secure the purchase of Glen Prosen, a 3,453-hectare estate in Angus, 12 months ago.

Full details of how it will be used have not been finalised, but plans include measures to boost environmental resilience to the likes of flooding.

FLS chief executive Simon Hodgson believes land management is already moving in the right direction, with novel ideas and new types of owners emerging.

“There is a real change in the way people are looking at the land in Scotland and encouragement, not only from government and other public bodies but also from communities and localities,” he said.

“There is a real aspiration to broaden the responsibility for land and the engagement that people have with it so that more people have a stake in its management, both for wider public purposes – more nature, more beauty, more productivity – and as a way of making a living and doing things differently.

“That’s a really positive move, because I think people feeling a sense of ownership and responsibility is key to getting the right sort of outcomes in terms of what we need the land to deliver.”

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The agency has already been engaged in handing over land to local groups and aims to continue that.

Mr Hodgson said: “We’re very involved in the community asset transfer process and respond positively to lots of approaches from communities, in particular smaller rural communities, to take over areas of land we have responsibility for.

“We’re completely enthusiastic about that and we’ve got some excellent schemes to demonstrate our commitment.”

The Land Reform Bill will keep that process moving forward “in a uniquely Scottish way”, he says.

“There’s a real determination to get the right result for Scotland.”

But he admits the pattern of land ownership and management could be improved.

“It’s not perfect,” he said, but points out there are currently no rules governing who can own land or what they do with it.

“I think changing that would introduce an element of direction from government that perhaps is not appropriate.”

However, he says community-based initiatives are “showing the way forward”, demonstrating how to maximise rewards for everybody.

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“I think pluralising the number of people and organisations involved in the management of land is the way to get the biggest benefits.

“Having single-purpose estates seems to me rather a diminishment of what the land has to offer.”

FLS is focused on “sustainable land management”, he says, which means addressing the triple bottom line – economic, social and environmental needs.

“We need to do the right things around climate change and biodiversity, the rural economy and jobs.

“We’re managing multipurpose forestry.

“The forests are there for the resource, for jobs, for people to visit, enjoy and find beautiful, for carbon and for wildlife.”

The Land Reform Bill is expected to include the introduction of a ‘public interest’ test for transfers of large-scale landholdings – proposed initially at 3,000 hectares – and a pre-emption in favour of community buyout, where appropriate.