Holyrood committee seeks views on Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill

Significant change to the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill is needed if the Scottish Government’s policy objectives for land reform are to be met, said Holyrood’s Net Zero, Energy & Transport Committee.

Although the majority of committee members support the general principles of the Bill, the latest report reads that significant amendments will be required to make the Bill deliver its aims.

The report explains that part one of the Bill in particular ‘risks not delivering, with its approach seen as potentially burdensome and bureaucratic’. The committee therefore calls for ‘processes that are as simple as they can be, are not an administrative headache, and actually deliver positive change for people’.

The committee does welcome the Bill’s part one provision for estates to produce Land Management Plans (LMPs) following community consultation. Its member said that these plans have the ‘potential to create an accessible ‘one stop shop’ for information about large parcels of land and improve transparency about estate ownership and use.’

The committee added that it is not convinced, however, that the Bill’s provision to offer communities the opportunity to buy land by making ‘off-market sales’ harder and giving them more time to register an interest to buy, will have a major impact. It is also disappointing the Scottish Government did not complete its review of the Community Right to Buy before introducing the Bill, so these could be considered together, the committee members said.

The committee supports the principle of ‘lotting’, giving ministers a discretionary power, where certain conditions are met, to require a large estate to be broken into smaller lots when it is put up for sale.

But the members said that independent professional advice should be sought to support these decisions. The Bill must also be strengthened to require express consideration of the public interest in each case where lotting is being proposed.

The committee backs most of the provisions in part two of the Bill, which attempts to reverse the continuing decline in agricultural tenancies and enable the sector to play a fuller role in responding to the twin climate and biodiversity crises.

However, it said that care will be needed to strike the right balance between landlord and tenant, otherwise even less land might be leased. There must also be broader consideration, over and above legal reforms, of how to actively encourage the leasing of land for agriculture.

Tackling climate and biodiversity crises

Committee convener, Edward Mountain MSP, commented: “This is a large and complex bill which proposes fundamental changes to the way land is managed in Scotland, and it is crucial that it strikes the right balance.

“We need rural communities and islands to thrive, and we need to support and encourage action to tackle our climate and biodiversity crises. But we must also ensure the action we take is proportionate and delivers real benefit for communities and the natural environment, rather than more paperwork.

“Only 8% of the respondents to our call for views thought that the Bill in its current form would fulfil the Scottish Government’s objectives. The government’s own independent advisers, the Scottish Land Commission, also agree the Bill needs substantial changes at Stage 2 to fully deliver. Care will be needed at amending stages to get each new detail right.

“During our year-long inquiry, we sought to hear from diverse voices via our evidence sessions, our call for views and being out and about in rural and agricultural Scotland. Thank you to everyone who took the time to contribute to scrutiny and help with our understanding of this Bill.”

A sample of further recommendations made within the report include:

A majority of the committee considers the Bill sets too high a threshold for requiring landlords to carry out community engagement (3,000 hectares in the case of mainland estates) and calls for this to be reviewed.

The committee supports the new role of Land and Communities Commissioner but says the appointee must seek independent professional advice from a suitably qualified person to support lotting decisions made by Scottish Ministers.

That the process for a community to register an interest in a large landholding be revised significantly – with more time allocated to them to register their interest.

That the Scottish Government sets out a clear definition of ‘sustainable and regenerative agriculture’ to ensure Part 2 of the Bill, which relies heavily on this term, has maximum impact.

The Committee agrees that the compensation payable on resumption (when the landlord takes back part of the tenancy) should be increased. However, it asks the Scottish Government to reflect on the significant criticism stakeholders have made of the revised methodology set out in the Bill, to ensure it gets the balance right.

A Stage 1 debate on the Bill will take place on the afternoon of Wednesday 26th March 2025.

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