Publisher:
Land Matters
Alternative Published Date
2024
Category:
Type of Resource:
Blog
Fast Facts
Scotland has long been one of the most unequal countries in the world in terms of land ownership
More details
- Land inequality in Scotland is some of the most extreme in the world, due to the country’s unique trajectory of agrarian transition which saw an evolution from lineage based to feudal, and then capitalist, private property regimes.
- Community ownership should remain an important element of land reform in Scotland – and is critical to support more dynamic and equitable pattern of rural growth and to ensure rents and revenue from economic activity goes back into the community.
- The problem with current reforms is not the type of ownership, but the mechanisms through which land is appropriated from absentee landlords and concentration dismantled.
- Current funds for community buy outs are miniscule when set against the vast sums of money against which estates are changing hands.
- Successful land reform in Scotland must move away from the ‘willing seller, willing buyer’ principle, which has been shown to be unsuccessful in many parts of the world. Achieving genuine change in the concentration of holdings, requires some level of compulsion whereby landlords are obliged to sell or part with their holdings with the interest of communities in mind.
- Most large 20th century land reforms which have transformed agrarian economies across Asia, Europe and Latin America involved ceilings on land – whereby concentration of ownership was considered economically, morally and politically unacceptable. Ceilings should be part of any genuine debate on land reform.
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