Community landowners in the news
14 December 2024
You may have noticed increased coverage of Community Land Scotland and community landownership in the news recently. Raising awareness of community landownership is one of Community Land Scotland’s main aims, so around 18 months ago, our Board decided to pool PR & Comms funds from across our grants to create a post. We are really pleased with how these have been going and thought you might like to get a flavour of the coverage. This year we also dipped our toe in the water in terms of running a public facing campaign on social media.
Our increased coverage in the press is thanks to our PR & Comms Coordinator, Norrie MacLennan, who joined us just over a year ago. Norrie, who was previously a Senior Editor of Gaelic News at the BBC has been busy building relationships with media outlets.
Our campaigns work was structured by Richard Bunting who worked with the Tarras Valley on their buyout campaign and delivered by our Campaigns Coordinator, Flora Brown.
Press coverage
Our stories in November included Heather Yearwood from Community Land Scotland and two community landowners taking part in a discussion on Call Kaye (Radio Scotland) about repurposing vacant and derelict land. This was followed up with a story in the National about community heroes tackling derelict land featuring Cardowan Community Meadow and Inchinnan Development Trust.
Norrie worked with Colonsay Community Development Company on a story about tenants moving into their new social housing. This was picked up on Radio Scotland, Radio nan Gàidheal and in The Herald and The Scotsman.
We know the housing crisis is close to many of our Members’ hearts. Our Chair, Ailsa Raeburn, gave this year’s Memorial Attwood Lecture at the University of the Highlands and Islands on the theme of ‘What is the Highland Problem in 2024?’. Ailsa’s call for an increase in Council Tax on second homes of up to 400% over the next decade, to help tackle the housing crisis, was picked up on Call Kaye, BBC Radio Orkney, Radio nan Gàidheal, West Highland Free Press, Scottish Housing News, The Scotsman, MSN, Northern Times and a number of other Highland papers.
Our Community Ownership Curator, Iain Craig, was interviewed by BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today about the 100 Years of Community Ownership project and we expect this to be aired in the New Year.
Finally, our new Natural Capital Partnerships project had coverage in the Press and Journal, Courier and Scottish Legal News.
We are planning to focus on positive community stories in the New Year and would love to hear if you’ve got anything happening that you would like to get in the press! Email us at: info@communitylandscotland.org.uk.
Campaign
This year, we also ran a public facing campaign on social media for the first time. Big thanks to Richard Bunting who helped us think through how we could create an effective campaign and to Flora Brown who led on launching the campaign and seeing it through its first year.
Awareness of the scale of land inequality in Scotland is low amongst the general public, especially amongst young people. Our campaign ‘Scotland’s for Sale but who is buying?’ ran on Instagram and shared statistics about land reform and stories about community landowners. We had a high level of comments and interaction and have received positive feedback from within Scotland and beyond. This campaign has come to an end for now but we would love to hear what you think!