Meeting of the Parliament 28 October 2025 [Draft]
This bill has been long in the making. Yet, after many hours of deliberation, it seems that it has not progressed much further from where it started. I remain deeply concerned that these measures do not go far enough in addressing the issue at the heart of land reform, which is that the majority of Scotland’s land is owned and controlled by a minority. Let us see where we get to over the next two days.
A key concern that I have about this legislation is that it does not do nearly enough to ensure that public interest considerations are at the heart of the new measures. The need for a public interest test has been discussed at length over the course of the bill’s progression. It formed part of the Scottish Land Commission’s recommendations for the legislation and it was included in the Government’s public consultation. Several variations of public interest amendments from several parties were discussed at stage 2, but none of those made it into the bill.
The transfer test that was introduced by ministers is a disappointing watering down of the Scottish Land Commission’s original recommendations. In general, the bill as drafted has drifted away from the commission’s original premise for it. A critical element that is absent is ensuring that the buyers of a large landholding or lotted land will act in the public interest. Scotland has a deeply unfair concentration of land ownership in the hands of a minority, who are often absent and seek only to extract wealth for themselves, rather than redistribute it.
My amendment 15 would introduce a public interest test on prospective buyers of large landholdings. It would require that the buyers of large landholdings are up front about how they intend to manage the land.
The test would also introduce two key criteria. First, a prospective buyer who already owns more than 500 hectares would not be able to pass the test, unless it could be shown that their management of the land would have significant environmental or community benefit. That would help to end the growing concentration of power in our land ownership pattern. Secondly, ministers would have to consider the prospective owner’s tax residency—