Changes needed to land reform Bill to win Green support, says Greer

The Scottish Government will have to make its land reform Bill more radical to ensure support from the Greens, the party’s co-leader has said.

The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill will go before MSPs for a final vote later this month, following what is expected to be multiple marathon sessions to consider more than 400 amendments.

The legislation would give ministers the power to break up large estates being offered for sale if certain conditions are met, as well as aiming to make community buyouts easier.

But the Greens have criticised the Bill for not going far enough in a country where just 421 people own 50% of private rural land.

Speaking to the PA news agency on Friday, the party’s co-leader Ross Greer said the Bill needs “substantial changes” if the Greens are to support it.

“We put forward dozens of proposals at the previous stage of the Land Reform Bill in Parliament and the Scottish Government just knocked them back one after the other,” he said.

“The message that we’re trying to get across to Government ministers now is, if you expect the Greens’ support for this Bill, if you want this Bill to pass, then it actually needs to deliver land reform.

“What they’re proposing at the moment is a Bill whose title is the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, but that will not break up any big estates, it will not take more land away from these billionaires, these tax avoiders and aristocrats, and give it to the people of Scotland.

“What we need is a Land Reform Bill that actually takes the land of this country and puts it back in the hands of the people who live here.

“It is appalling that in a country of more than five million people, there are fewer than 500 people and companies that own a majority of our private land.”

The Greens are pushing for shooting lodges to be exempt from the Small Business Bonus Scheme, which provide rates relief, and for measures to dissuade rich foreigners from buying land in Scotland.

“We’ve proposed that there are far stricter rules put on international billionaires, tax avoiders, etcetera when they try and buy land here,” Mr Greer said.

“It should be much, much more difficult for the international super-rich to buy up more and more of Scotland’s land.

“But sadly, what we’ve seen over the last 20 years is the reverse of that.

“We want to make it harder for them to do that, we want to tax them far more heavily so that we can use that money to restore the natural environment that they’ve exploited and degraded.

“Ultimately, we want more of the land in this country to actually be in the hands of the people who live here.”

Cabinet Secretary for Land Reform Mairi Gougeon said: “There is clear public support for action to change how Scotland’s land is managed and the ambitious proposals in the Land Reform Bill represent a significant step forward in helping to diversify ownership.

“The Bill will give communities more opportunities to use their Right to Buy and will stop sales of large landholdings from proceeding until Ministers can consider the impact on local communities.

“Ministers will be able to require land to be sold in lots, supporting diversity of ownership.

“The Bill will also require landowners to engage with local communities, giving them more of a say in how land is used and managed, and will improve the rights of tenant farmers.”