Meeting of the Parliament 17 June 2015
We had a wide-ranging debate this afternoon that went from the minutiae of allotment sizes to a philosophical conundrum from my colleague Rob Gibson, who asked what the definition of “environment” is. We have to look to the big scale and blue-sky thinking on the issue as well as at the minutiae of the process. The bill will empower communities through the ownership of land and buildings, strengthen their voices on the decisions that matter to them and put them at the heart of the process.
The extension of the community right to buy across Scotland will help to deliver the Government’s ambitious target of 1 million acres of land being in community ownership by 2020, and the bill will improve the outcomes for communities by involving them in the community planning process and by strengthening partnership working in our local authorities and community environments. I am glad that the Scottish Government is supporting that process with an additional £10 million, which will be provided through the new empowering communities fund, to ensure that people can be more involved in the decisions that affect their lives.
There is much to be commended in the bill, a lot of which has already been debated. The ownership of land and buildings and the strengthening of voices in the decisions that matter to communities are at the heart of what we are doing.
It has been a long afternoon, so I will leave it there. I look forward to the bill being passed later.
19:30