Meeting of the Parliament 21 March 2019
When one person comes to my constituency surgery and says that they have a problem with someone, I do not ask how many other people are affected or for proof that the issue affects more people. I take the person at face value.
I am running out of time because I took that intervention, so I will skip a part of my speech.
Negative experiences might be few and far between, but we must ask how irresponsible land ownership can be dealt with and whether land monopolies are good for Scotland.
I question whether it is in the public interest for solely conifers to be planted on large tracts of Scotland’s land as an investment opportunity and to attract Government grants. There seems to be a lot of that kind of thing going on. Could such land be used more productively to give livelihoods to new entrant farmers? Could it be used to provide much-needed rural housing? Could it be used to plant a range of indigenous trees that would nurture much-needed biodiversity?
We have seen how land reforms by this Government and previous Governments have benefited communities in Scotland, but the report shows that there is a need to do more. Of particular interest is the idea of having public-interest tests in order to tackle the powerful monopolies that exist in certain geographical areas. The report makes some interesting recommendations, on which I hope to be able to question the Scottish Land Commission, stakeholders and the Government in the near future.
15:56