Humza Yousaf plots crackdown on landed gentry

Critics are labelling the SNP plans ‘irrational’ and ‘destructive’

Lairds will be forced to parcel up their estates during sales under SNP plans to reduce the concentration of landownership in Scotland. 
The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, which was launched by Humza Yousaf’s government on Thursday, would force those with more than 1,000 hectares of land to sell in lots, rather than as a whole.
The process of “lotting” will make rural communities more sustainable, the Scottish government said, by giving locals more of a chance to buy land.
The largest landowners will also be forced to prove that they are addressing climate change and restoring nature, under the bill.
MPs and campaigners hit out against the plans, saying they were a “destructive” attack on Scottish landowners and would prove to be counterproductive. 
Scottish Conservative shadow rural affairs secretary Rachael Hamilton MSP accused the SNP of being “out-of-touch” with the needs of rural Scotland.
“They seem hellbent on intervening in the rural way of life, rather than properly engaging with them and ensuring that proportionate measures are taken,” she said.  
“Many landowners will understandably be concerned about ministers having sweeping powers as part of this bill and what they will do with them.
“Alongside my Scottish Conservative colleagues, I will be keenly scrutinising this bill to ensure that our rural communities and the rural economy is properly supported for future generations.”
Sarah-Jane Laing, chief executive of Scottish Land & Estates, said: “Rather than taking a common-sense approach to reflect the challenges that people living and working in rural Scotland face, Scottish ministers are pursuing a destructive and disproportionate agenda against land-based businesses.”
She added: “The government is taking an irrational approach to farms and estates over 1,000 hectares, which seems to be driven purely by a desire to break these up regardless of the outcome. 
“The blizzard of regulations they are proposing around the transfer of landholdings will create conflict, cause market uncertainty and deter much needed investment.”
There are more than 1,800 estates of more than 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) in Scotland, with 623 that are more than 3,000 hectares, forming 39pc of the country’s landmass. 
Less than 1pc of Scotland’s land is sold off annually, and 93pc of sales are of areas smaller than 500 hectares. A study by the Scottish Land Commission in 2019 found that 1,125 owners, including some major public bodies including the Forest Enterprise and the National Trust, own 70pc of rural land in Scotland. 
A study by the Scottish Land Commission in 2019 found that 1,125 owners, including some major public bodies including the Forest Enterprise and the National Trust, own 70pc of rural land in Scotland.
It has described the concentration of landownership in Scotland as “socially corrosive”.
The bill will need to pass three legislative stages before it receives Royal Assent and becomes Scottish law, and could see amendments added. 
Rural affairs secretary Mairi Gougeon said: “We do not think it is right that ownership and control of much of Scotland’s land is still in the hands of relatively few people. 
“Crucially, when one of these landholdings is being sold, we want the government to have the power to step in and require that it be sold in smaller parcels to different people if that will help to make local populations and communities more sustainable.”