Land Reform (Scotland) Bill Stage 2: Briefing on concentrated landownership – the impact and evidence base

Land reform is a pressing issue for the Scottish Parliament to address. Who owns land in Scotland has a direct impact upon the opportunity for economic development and wealth generation, and how the benefits of that are spread or alternatively extracted to benefit only a
few. Scotland’s concentrated pattern of landownership has resulted in inflated land prices, depleted biodiversity, an unsustainable industrial forestry sector, an inequitable food system and an agricultural sector which is growing more consolidated and stifling new entrants.

This briefing relays evidence from various pieces of work from the Scottish Land Commission which highlight the damage of concentrated ownership at a national scale.