The coalition for grouse moor reform

Scotland needs land reform now 

Scotland has one of the most concentrated and unequal patterns of land ownership in the world. This harms our economy, the vibrancy of our communities, the wellbeing of our environment, our wildlife, the health of our democracy and the ability of ordinary people to realise their own vision.

It does not have to be like this – all the tools that Scotland needs to reform its land are within the powers of the Scottish Parliament. Scotland can:

  • Complete a comprehensive land registry to provide full transparency on who owns Scotland's land
  • Introduce some form of land taxation to incentivise better productive use of land
  • Reform agricultural and business subsidies to emphasise the quality of land use
  • Introduce a cap on the maximum amount of land one 'beneficial owner' can own
  • Use Compulsory Sales Orders to encourage and where necessary require landowners to sell land to the public. This can be required to be broken into small plot sizes to enable land access by small and medium-sized businesses, communities and small investors
  • Use Compulsory Purchase Orders to buy land for public good purposes
  • Extend the planning system to rural land to ensure a public-good criteria for land use
  • Give communities a legal right to a say in the planning process for land in their vicinity
  • Create a proper system of local democracy in Scotland to empower communities to shape land use
  • Introduce a rural housebuilding strategy to tackle the rural housing crisis with communities empowered to address this directly through local democracy
  • Reform the regulation of key practices in rural areas such as deer and grouse moor management to require more environmentally-sustainable practices
  • Task the Scottish National Investment Bank to create a substantial land investment fund to support start-up and expanding businesses and community development
  • Establish a National Land Agency to oversee all of the above

Using these powers would transform land ownership and use in Scotland and change our future for the better. It is time that Scotland used them.

Please sign and back our call 

I want real land reform in Scotland

Land reform in Scotland is long overdue. The Scottish Government has all the powers it needs to deliver it. I am asking for the Scottish Government to use those powers now.

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Revive is a coalition of like-minded organisations working to reform Scotland’s grouse moors.