All talk and no action: Why land ownership is more concentrated now than 25 years ago
October 7, 2024
All talk and no action: Why land ownership is more concentrated now than 25 years ago
by JohnCharitySpringMA
6 comments
>We have been here before. Back in 1999, it was claimed that the community right-to-buy “would effect a rapid change in the pattern of landownership”. Twenty years later, it has resulted in 18,700ha of land changing hands – or 0.0125 per cent of rural Scotland each year. I don’t regard that as rapid change.
>…
>Meanwhile, over the past five years the Duke of Buccleuch has been downsizing and selling off around 40 per cent of his sizeable landholdings to a wide variety of community and environmental organisations as well as businesses and local individuals and tenants.
>For all the rhetoric and grand claims made by Scottish politicians about the division of land in Scotland, **it is instructive to note that in fact the Duke of Buccleuch has been responsible for redistributing more land in five years** than Scottish ministers and parliament have managed in 25. Maybe we need another review to consider why.
Richard Scott is just selling away his land that would otherwise just sit dormant under his name like a lot of land that isnt leased in some way, it’s different when it’s the government determining when a piece of land has gone dormant for too long and can be used for something else then finding a way to obtain it. I would like them to put the pieces in place to do that though.
Tax very large landowners with a five yearly process where the have to give back a percentage to Scotland. The land given back would be chosen not by the landowner, aiming for it to be contiguous with other public land for ease of management?
Capitalism and neoliberal brainwash of the masses
We need to replace council tax with land tax.
What’s basically being alluded to here is a land grab, but even if that happened, having land is useless if you cannot do anything with it. It’s probably why so few even try to buy land in the first place.
You can’t just build a house on land for example, not will you ever be able to the way the planning system is set up
6 comments
>We have been here before. Back in 1999, it was claimed that the community right-to-buy “would effect a rapid change in the pattern of landownership”. Twenty years later, it has resulted in 18,700ha of land changing hands – or 0.0125 per cent of rural Scotland each year. I don’t regard that as rapid change.
>…
>Meanwhile, over the past five years the Duke of Buccleuch has been downsizing and selling off around 40 per cent of his sizeable landholdings to a wide variety of community and environmental organisations as well as businesses and local individuals and tenants.
>For all the rhetoric and grand claims made by Scottish politicians about the division of land in Scotland, **it is instructive to note that in fact the Duke of Buccleuch has been responsible for redistributing more land in five years** than Scottish ministers and parliament have managed in 25. Maybe we need another review to consider why.
Richard Scott is just selling away his land that would otherwise just sit dormant under his name like a lot of land that isnt leased in some way, it’s different when it’s the government determining when a piece of land has gone dormant for too long and can be used for something else then finding a way to obtain it. I would like them to put the pieces in place to do that though.
Tax very large landowners with a five yearly process where the have to give back a percentage to Scotland. The land given back would be chosen not by the landowner, aiming for it to be contiguous with other public land for ease of management?
Capitalism and neoliberal brainwash of the masses
We need to replace council tax with land tax.
What’s basically being alluded to here is a land grab, but even if that happened, having land is useless if you cannot do anything with it. It’s probably why so few even try to buy land in the first place.
You can’t just build a house on land for example, not will you ever be able to the way the planning system is set up