A Consultation on the Future of Land Reform in Scotland: Analysis of Consultation Responses

2. INTRODUCTION

2.1 On the 26 November 2014 the First Minister, as part of the Programme for Government, set out the Scottish Government's vision that Scotland's land must be an asset that benefits the many, not the few. The relationship of people with land is viewed as fundamental to their well-being and economic success in addition to achieving environmental sustainability and social justice.

2.2 There has been much discussion on land reform in previous years. The vision outlined in 1999 by the Land Reform Policy Group^[5] underpinned key developments over the last decade. The Group identified two main outcomes for land reform: firstly, to achieve more diverse ownership and a reduction in the concentration of ownership and management arrangements at local level, in order to promote sustainable development; and secondly, to ensure increased community involvement in the way that land was owned and used so that local people were not excluded from decisions that affect them as individuals and as communities.

2.3 Since the 1999 report there have been various legislative and other measures put in place to deliver land reform including the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc (Scotland) Act 2000 and the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.

2.4 Following from a 2011 manifesto commitment, in 2012 the Scottish Government established an independent review of land reform in Scotland. The Land Reform Review Group (LRRG) was set up and its report, The Land of Scotland and the Common Good^[6], was published in May 2014. The report contained 62 recommendations and has been pivotal in placing the land reform debate in a modern context, reflecting the emphasis on public interest and common good.

2.5 The Scottish Government welcomed the LRRG report and has already undertaken work to move forward many of its recommendations. In particular, the Scottish Government has committed to:

• complete the Land Register for the whole of Scotland within ten years, with registration of all public sector land in five years;
• improve and extend existing community rights to buy through the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill to allow urban communities the right to buy;
• develop a strategy to achieve the target for 1 million acres of community ownership by 2020;

• extend the Scottish Land Fund over the 2016-2020 spending period;
• bring forward a Land Reform Bill.

2.6 On 2 December 2014 the Scottish Government published a consultation paper seeking views on a proposed Land Rights and Responsibilities Policy and a wide range of other potential legislative measures to further land reform in Scotland. The responses to the consultation will be instrumental in guiding public policy on the nature and character of land rights, and on a range of potential provisions for a Land Reform Bill within this parliamentary term. The consultation closed on 10 February, although agreed late responses were received up until 25 February.

2.7 This report presents the analysis of views contained in the responses to the land reform consultation which were relevant to the questions asked. Additional information provided by respondents has been made available to Scottish Government where respondents gave permission for this to happen. All responses have been made publicly available on the Scottish Government website unless the respondent has specifically requested otherwise. The views are those of the respondents to this consultation and do not necessarily represent the views of the wider population.

Consultation responses

2.8 The Scottish Government received 1165 standard written and online responses to the consultation. Table 2.1 shows the distribution of standard responses by category of respondent. A full list of the organisations who responded is in Annex 1. The respondent category applied to each response was allocated by the Scottish Government policy team. On the few occasions where respondents did not fit clearly into any of the sectors, a decision was made on the closest match and a consistent policy followed.

Table 2.1: Distribution of standard responses by category of respondent

* Amongst the individuals were private landowners, with the responses from this sector spread between the individual category and the private landowner organisation category. There were also community representatives split between the individual and community organisation categories. Percentages are rounded.

2.9 The majority (82%) of standard responses were submitted by individuals including members of the public, and people working within stakeholder organisations such as remote and rural estates and community organisations. Of the 18% of responses from organisations, the sectors submitting the most responses were national non-government organisations and private landowner organisations.

2.10 In addition to the standard responses, a further 104^[7] responses were received which have been categorised as "campaign" or "campaign plus" responses. The three pro-forma templates can be accessed in Annex 2. A summary of the number of these responses is in Table 2.2. As campaign responses contain the same wording submitted by many people it is normal practice to exclude them from the quantitative element of analysis so that they do not skew response in one direction or another. They are however described separately in each section of the report to ensure that the views of the campaign are fully represented. Hence when the analysis refers to the 'Common Weal campaign response' it is referring to views held by, and responses made by, 82 separate submissions.

Table 2.2: Summary of responses to campaigns

2.11 Submissions were made via the dedicated online system Delib or in other electronic or hard copy formats. Responses not entered directly onto Delib by the respondent were entered onto it manually by the Scottish Government policy team and the contractor in order to establish one database and to aid subsequent analysis of their content. The full responses from individuals and organisations who gave permission to publish their response can be found on the Scottish Government website^[8].

Analysis of responses

2.12 The analysis of responses is presented in the following seven chapters which follow the order of the topics raised in the consultation paper. The consultation contained 45 questions, of which 15 were closed (yes/no answers requested) and the remainder were open, inviting free text response. The analysis of the standard responses to each question is provided, followed by a summary of the relevant views from the campaign responses.

2.13 Throughout the report quotes taken directly from responses have been used to illustrate specific points. These were selected on the basis that they enhanced the analysis by emphasising specific points succinctly. Quotes from a range of sectors were chosen, where the respondents had given permission for their respective response to be made public.

2.14 All numbers and percentages used in the analysis are based on the respondent population to this consultation. They are not necessarily representative of the wider population and cannot be extrapolated further.

2.15 A full analysis of responses has been undertaken and presented to the Scottish Government. For the sake of brevity in this published report, views provided by fewer than 10 respondents have been omitted, although these have been noted and reported.

2.16 Respondent categories have been abbreviated in the report as follows: