Imagine a feudal country where 432 families own half the land. Welcome to Scotland.
In a fascinating article in the Independent, Jonathan Brown has looked at land ownership in Scotland. He says “Their lineages date back to before the time of the Stuart kings whilst their farms and sporting estates sprawl across vast swathes of some of the most beautiful – and lucrative – landscapes in the world. Yet the Scottish Lairds have found themselves under attack after breaking their silence and fiercely opposing reforms which could see their historic lands broken up and offered for sale to small farmers and community groups.”
Scotland currently has the most concentrated pattern of private ownership in the developed world with just 432 individuals accounting for half of all non-public land. Submissions by the aristocracy and their representatives to the Land Reform Review Group, which was set up by the Scottish Government to consider the stalled question of redistribution, reveal deep-seated opposition to change.
Among those to challenge the proposals was an estate belonging to the 10th Duke of Buccleuch – a title created in 1663 for the illegitimate son of Charles II – who is now Europe‘s largest landowner with holdings valued at more than £1bn.
Land reform activists and author Andy Wightman said land ownership had become even more concentrated. “We need to work towards a true property owning democracy. We need many more people with a stake in the land,” he said. “It’s the first time they have addressed head on the fact that so much land is held in so few hands. They are denying it’s a problem but they are conceding it is one of the central issues which is very interesting because they cannot win in the long term,” he added. And, as we go to press, the Scottish government has published proposals aimed at widening the ownership of land across the country.
The Land Reform Bill will end tax relief for shooting estates and force the sale of land if owners are blocking economic development. Landowners on sporting estates stopped paying business rates in 1994 after being given an exemption by John Major’s Conservative government. The Scottish government had previously said the tax exemption was unfair and must end. It has proposed using the additional money raised by ending the tax exemption to treble the Scottish Land Fund – which is used to help support community buyouts of land – from £3m this year to £10m a year from 2016.
The introduction of the bill is a significant step forward in ensuring our land is used in the public interest and to the benefit of the people of Scotland, said Aileen McLeod, Scotland’s Land Reform Minister.
