Hansard

The Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee considered part 4 of the bill and reported our views to the Local Government and Regeneration Committee.

Land reform is an on-going and complex process. The provisions in part 4 address some of the issues on that agenda. Once amended, the provisions should resolve the identified shortcomings of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 and extend the community right to buy across Scotland, which we welcome. However, we agreed with some concerns about the drafting of the bill, with regard to what is included and what is to be left needing regulation and guidance later on.

The committee believes that the complexity of aspects within part 4 merits further explanation in the financial and explanatory memoranda. Further consideration of sustainable development and human rights could have facilitated a more constructive dialogue between landowners and communities. We understand that the community right to buy will be demand led, so the costs for communities, landowners and public bodies are unclear. The financial memorandum omits to monitor the cost implications of the part 4 provisions closely and the funding requirements will have to be kept under review—the figure is as long as a piece of a string.

Stakeholders overwhelmingly support extending the community right to buy to the whole of Scotland. The committee agrees, and we welcome the provisions in section 27 to do so. We also welcome the cabinet secretary’s potential amendments at stage 2 to extend the list of eligible community bodies, and we recommend that that includes community benefit societies and community interest companies.

We heard some suggest that the definition of communities should include communities of interest as well as those of geographic place, for example in dispersed rural communities. However, the committee recognises the importance of communities being rooted in place, and we are content with the definition in the bill.

Registration of an interest in land was explored in great detail. As many communities start to take an interest in land acquisition only when land comes on to the market, it is right to have that. Communities benefit from proactive engagement in community development and trying to identify assets that they may need to deliver their objectives. In principle, we are supportive of the requirement to register an interest in land, but re-registration processes must be simplified and should include the option to register for a purpose.

Communities should have a right to register an interest and to be notified when land is coming on to the market or ownership is changing and that should trigger the process of registering a right of pre-emption, which is a new way forward. The process for late registration should reflect the practical reality for communities and should be redesigned to accommodate that.

A presumption in favour of re-registration should be agreed unless there is some material change of circumstances. If the re-registration process is substantially simplified, a requirement to re-register every five years is appropriate.

The committee agrees that mapping requirements for the community right to buy are excessive. Communities need a simplified system to align the eligibility criteria with those for parts 2 and 3A of the amended Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.

The power to extend the community right to buy where there is no willing seller should be a power of last resort. That power could play a key role to hasten negotiation. We are concerned that this new right, as currently drafted, may be almost impossible to exercise. Too many obstacles and opportunities for avoidance on the part of landowners occur to us.

Why should the definition of eligible land be restricted to that which is considered to be

“wholly or mainly abandoned or neglected”?

The committee believes the draft bill may fail to further sustainable development. Why is a definition needed at all, as the parallel tests for crofting land purchases do not require that? Most committee members support tests of furthering sustainable development and being in the public interest, which meet the requirements.

The majority of the committee recommended that the Scottish Government consider a definition that avoids the wider circumstances that are barriers to sustainable development, and we look forward to the minister providing guidelines before stage 2. If no unambiguous and acceptable definition of abandoned or neglected land appears on the face of the bill, avoiding the existing legal concept of abandoned land, the committee will ask the Scottish Government to remove the term “abandoned or neglected land”. We think it is an urban concept that has little place in rural land use.

The difficulties faced by communities in seeking to exercise their right to buy prompt us to seek assurance that appropriate support and funding is available. Public sector bodies, such as the Forestry Commission, must be proactive, so we welcome the Scottish Government’s proposal to establish a community land unit to provide support and advice. That may help many communities to make progress.

The committee understands that the Scottish Government intends to lodge amendments at stage 2 to include provisions for the crofting community right to buy. We would have preferred the consultation on the crofting community right to buy to have been undertaken alongside the consultation on the existing part 4 provisions, and amendments to the crofting community right to buy to have been included in the bill rather than being introduced at stage 2.

The committee wrote more than 70 pages of report on part 4. That suggests that the bill is a huge bill with huge intent and that community empowerment is central to all our interests. To make it all the more effective, we hope that the Government will take on board the committee’s views.