Meeting of the Parliament 26 March 2025
Some people hold the view that it does not matter who owns Scotland’s land. They do not mind that Scotland’s pattern of private land ownership is probably the most concentrated in the world. Some people are relaxed that anyone in the world can buy large amounts of land in Scotland with relatively little scrutiny. Scottish Labour members believe that those things do matter. It matters that less than 1 per cent of Scotland’s people own two thirds of Scotland’s rural land.
The story of who owns Scotland is a long history of inequality, and we need to write a new chapter. The bill is the latest attempt to spread the ownership of Scotland’s land into the hands of the many, not the wealthy few. Scottish Labour absolutely supports the bill’s principles, because we know that the land reform journey is far from over.
We have not waited for the Government to do all the work. My colleague Mercedes Villalba consulted on a member’s bill a couple of summers ago, and I hope that the Government is very much looking at that work as we try to improve the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.
Rural communities deserve the opportunities that can be unlocked if land is owned, managed and used in the public interest. Our ambition is for urban communities to also benefit. As a Central Scotland MSP, I know that there is an overreliance on speculative private developers, which contributes to the acquisition of strategic land banks. We have heard about the community right to buy, but we need that to be more meaningful and to be a reality.
We know that wealthy landowners are powerful and have huge influence over decisions that impact the people of Scotland. A Scotland that aspires to be modern and democratic needs to change that. Tim Eagle spoke about large estate owners gifting small plots of land to local people to build homes on, but our communities deserve to have greater control over their own destiny. They deserve choice, not charity.
As a member of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, I am in the privileged position of being one of the seven committee MSPs who have been scrutinising the bill. We have read and listened to a colossal amount of evidence. Like the convener, I am hugely grateful to everyone who has contributed, and a special word of thanks must be recorded for the committee clerks and SPICe colleagues.
I recognise that the cabinet secretary and her officials have worked really hard to reach this stage. Mairi Gougeon has signalled her intention to leave the Parliament at the end of this session, and there will be opportunities to say nice things about her closer to that time.
Despite all the doom and gloom that we have heard from members of the Tory front bench today, there is a majority in the Parliament for advancing Scotland’s land reform journey.
The committee’s stage 1 report recommends support for the bill’s general principles. However, we make really important recommendations on how the bill should be improved and strengthened, and we set out where more clarity is required. I welcome the cabinet secretary’s letter to the committee last night and the fact that she has restated today that she will continue to listen, reflect and work with MSPs, stakeholders and, importantly, grass-roots voices, because we must ensure that the bill is amended at stage 2 in a coherent way.
I agree with the cabinet secretary that Scotland should be a land of opportunity, and we need to be bold to ensure that Scotland is not just a playground for the extremely wealthy. I think that some members in the chamber would gladly keep things that way, so we need to work hard and be bold and ambitious at stages 2 and 3.
My colleague Rhoda Grant, who attended stage 1 evidence sessions and has championed land reform throughout her political service, has set out areas in which Scottish Labour will seek to improve the bill. That includes public interest tests—I was glad to hear Michael Matheson speak about them, because the Government needs to show a bit of courage and be bolder in that area.
Rhoda Grant talked about issues on which Scottish Labour will lodge amendments or support others, particularly in relation to thresholds, lotting and the role of the land and communities commissioner. We believe that the commissioner should be able to proactively investigate potential breaches of community engagement obligations.