Land Reform

Scotland's Inheritance

Despite welcome reformist legislation since the advent of the Scottish Parliament and, in particular, the recent emphasis of facilitating community ownership, Scottish land ownership is still amongst the most inequitable in the developed world and the historic pattern of private ownership remains virtually unchanged.

Since 2016 a mere 0.1% (less than 12,000 hectares) of Scotland’s rural land has come into community ownership while some 432 families and/or entities own over half of the private land in Scotland. Meanwhile private companies ‘bank’ development land, freezing it out of optimum use.

The ALBA Party believes that this situation is detrimental to both Scotland’s economic development and attempts to improve the natural biodiversity of the land as we face the climate crisis, and it is long past time for a seriously radical and integrated approach to this damaging concentration of landed power and hold over what is, the asset base of our country.

Therefore, ALBA are committed to holding a Special National Assembly before the end of this year on land policy, and to establish a working group to bring forward detailed proposals to Spring Conference 2024.

ALBA will use its influence in the next Scottish Parliament to secure the implementation of a radical land policy, and that new land policy will feature as a full part of ALBA’s ‘Scotland’s Resources for Scotland’s People’ campaigning.