Meeting of the Parliament 04 March 2026 [Draft]
We know that the concentration of land ownership in Scotland is a massive issue. Through some of the landmark powers that we already have, we are seeing steps in the right direction when it comes to community ownership. Over recent years, the number of assets in community ownership has risen, and it has done so through each year of this parliamentary session. The most recent information that we have shows that more than 213,000 hectares of land are in community ownership; they are owned by more than 500 groups across Scotland.
It is also important to remember the mechanism by which we enable people to access or consider community ownership, which is the Scottish land fund. Since the latest fund opened in 2021, the committee of the Scottish land fund has awarded a total of £32.4 million to more than 249 community groups. We are supporting that community ownership because it has the power to be transformative for local communities, whether they are in urban or rural Scotland.