Meeting of the Parliament 21 March 2019
I am pleased to speak in this debate a week after I spoke in Andy Wightman’s members’ business debate on who owns Scotland. The subject of land reform in Scotland has long been debated in the chamber. Indeed, since 1999, 19 acts of the Parliament have contained some form of land reform measures. Like Edward Mountain, I welcome moves towards transparency in land ownership, which was mentioned by the cabinet secretary.
However, we must be mindful of the rights of individual owners, particularly in light of the events south of the border that involved vegan protesters obtaining names and addresses online and using that information to target farms and farmers, causing damage and severe distress to those involved. I hope that the Scottish Government will commit to introducing protective measures as part of wider land reform to ensure that farmers and other landowners are not open to intimidation in relation to the land that they own or the legal use of that land.
As the MSP for the Galloway and West Dumfries constituency, I have always highlighted the damaging centralisation from the Scottish Government on a number of issues, so it is only right that I welcome steps that are taken to empower local communities. However, we should ensure that the focus is on good land management and use, and not necessarily on who owns the land.
Yesterday’s report from the Scottish Land Commission will no doubt play a significant part in this afternoon’s debate. I wish to put on record my concerns about the failure of the report to recognise the huge contribution that is made by many rural landowning businesses, which provides substantial support to local economies.
I was disappointed that even the report’s title—“Investigation into the Issues Associated with Large Scale and Concentrated Land Ownership in Scotland”—set an unfortunate tone. The report apparently shows how the concentration of social, economic and decision-making powers significantly impacts on communities across rural Scotland. Where is the information about the significant positive impacts on the communities that benefit from large-scale and concentrated land ownership?