Scottish Land Commissioner, Dr Sally Reynolds, looks at scale and concentration of land ownership in Scotland.

The issue of scale and concentration in land ownership has been an underlying theme and driver of the land reform debate in Scotland for decades. Scotland has an unusually concentrated pattern of land ownership with relatively little public regulation by international comparison.

That these issues remain a public concern is reflected in the current Programme for Government which sets out the expectation for the Scottish Land Commission to ‘review the unusually concentrated pattern of land ownership in Scotland, including the potential risk of localised monopolies in some situations, and its potential impact on the public interest’.

To begin this work we are publishing a discussion paper and research report. The Land Lines discussion paper, independently written by Peter Peacock, asks some challenging questions about fairness, economic opportunity and the risk of localised monopoly situations. It recognises the complex relationship between scale, accountability and productivity and suggests a number of potential interventions.

The research report by the University of the Highlands and Islands and University of Aberdeen, commissioned by the Land Commission, provides a rigorous review of international examples of the way in which countries regulate the scale and concentration of ownership. It considers a range of measures that are commonly used and explores the drivers behind these approaches and what we can learn from them.

For the Land Commission, it is important we get behind the headlines and land ownership statistics to understand the implications and issues that people associate with scale and concentration of ownership. It is not a simple relationship and there is unlikely to be a single answer. But it is directly relevant to our objectives to increase the productivity, diversity and accountability of the way land is owned and managed in Scotland.

Addressing these questions is core to modernising our system of land ownership in a way that people feel comfortable reflects Scotland’s current needs and ambitions. We know this is a topic that provokes strong views and feelings from different perspectives. That is why we want to address it straight-forwardly and openly.

The Land Commission is opening a call for people to submit evidence and experience on the issues associated with concentration of ownership. This is an open opportunity and we want people from all perspectives to submit experience and evidence including individuals, community groups, land owners and managers. We want to understand both the good and bad experiences and examples of issues associated with concentrated land ownership.

The Commission will then use this information to inform its consideration of the issues and also how they can best be addressed. We intend to publish an interim report of our findings towards the end of 2018.

This article was originally published on the Scottish Land Commission website.