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Meeting of the Parliament 05 June 2013

05 Jun 2013 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Land Reform

Allard, Christian SNP North East Scotland Watch on SPTV

I welcome the debate secured by Claire Baker. Like others before me, I wish that Mrs Baker had waited for the independent group looking at the future of land ownership and management in Scotland to publish its final report before calling on the Scottish Government to interfere with the process. That would also have given me more time to prepare for the debate. The final report of the land reform review group will come at the end of phase 2. As has been said, the report published last month is only an interim report.

There is consensus in the chamber because we all agree to build on the achievements of the Scottish Parliament on land reform. I noticed with interest that last year three significant land reform acts were passed: the Agricultural Holdings (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2012, the Long Leases (Scotland) Act 2012 and the Land Registration etc (Scotland) Act 2012. As the minister said, the commitment to land reform is a process, not an event. The Parliament and the Scottish Government have clearly demonstrated their will to build on the community right to buy landmark achievement.

What has impressed me most in the debate is how the land reform review group was established independent from Government and how it has engaged with many stakeholders. I remember last year participating in the Scottish Government community empowerment and renewal bill consultation as a community councillor of my wee town of Westhill in Aberdeenshire.

I will illustrate how radical and bold we already are when it comes to land reform. When our small group of community councillors was asked whether we would support a community right to buy for urban communities, not everyone around the table understood why urban communities would want to engage with the idea, and most agreed that that proposition was not for them. When we were prompted to consider whether it would be appropriate to transfer unused or underused public sector assets to individual communities, the same answers came that that was not for our community.

By then, I found it difficult to contain my frustration and, when the same answers came in response to the question, “Would it help your community if it owned land or buildings?” I felt an urge to speak. I pointed out to everyone that we were looking for a piece of land to create a space for allotments to benefit many in our community. The answer that I received showed me how different the attitude to land ownership in Scotland is from the attitude in the country that I came from many years ago. I was asked, “Why own a piece of land and be responsible for it when we could ask the local estate to help with this community local project?”

There is a danger that the top-down legislation that Claire Baker seems to ask for is not what is required, as we want land reform legislation to reflect the aspirations of our communities, both urban and rural.

Let me be clear: we have seen great progress, not only in the west of Scotland but in the region that I have the privilege to represent—North East Scotland. Attitudes in my wee town of Westhill have moved on. We celebrated the opening of the first men’s shed in Scotland—the Westhill Men’s Shed—a community project that I had the pleasure of visiting with the local constituency MSP, Dennis Robertson.

I am proud that the Westhill Men’s Shed has been nominated as a contender for the people’s choice award by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations. More to the point, the Westhill Men’s Shed was one of the first community groups in the north-east to apply for community asset transfer. It was successful, the legislation works and the attitudes are changing. However, I wonder whether Marty Kehoe, who is the chairman of the Westhill Men’s Shed, had an influence on the group’s change of attitude.

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Meeting of the Parliament 05 June 2013

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