Bills and Laws

Land Reform (Scotland) Bill

The Bill aims to reform the law around large landholdings and certain types of leases of land.

The Bill is at Stage 1

The Bill is in two main parts.

Part 1 deals with large landholdings.

This part of the Bill:

gives Ministers the power to make changes to the law that would require certain landowners to
- have a land management plan
- consider requests from a community body to lease land
gives community bodies the opportunity to be informed about certain sales and more time to register an interest in buying land
states that, in certain cases, ownership of a large landholding must be transferred in smaller ‘lots’, rather than as a whole, if it may make a community more sustainable
creates a new Land and Communities Commissioner, within the Scottish Land Commission, who would be responsible for:
- the enforcement of the new community engagement requirements on landowners
- providing reports for lotting decisions

Part 2 of the Bill deals with certain types of leases of land and has three chapters.

Chapter 1 requires Ministers to publish a model lease that can be used for letting land for an environmental purpose.

Chapter 2 makes changes to the law relating to small landholdings, including:

giving the Tenant Farming Commissioner functions in relation to small landholdings
making provision around how small landholdings are managed, such as rent, use of land for non-cultivation purposes, how a small landholder can transfer their tenancy, compensation for the landowner or small landholder at the end of a small landholding tenancy, and a small landholder’s right to buy land

Chapter 3 makes changes to the law relating to agricultural holdings, including:

allowing Ministers to make regulations about how a tenant registers an interest in using the current pre-emptive right to buy land
making arrangements for how agricultural holdings should be managed, such as:
- rent reviews
- use of land for non-agricultural purposes
- compensation
- what happens when a landlord wants to take back (resume) all or part of the land forming an agricultural holding
making changes to the rules of good estate management and the rules of good husbandry.

This Bill is part of the Scottish Government’s ongoing programme of land reform.

Part 1 of the Bill is based on the Scottish Land Commission’s recommendations relating to the scale and concentration of land ownership.

Part 2 of the Bill supports the Scottish Government’s Vision for Agriculture and its ambition to “become a global leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture”.