Land Matters!
Last month The Voice highlighted the disproportionate size of local authority areas in Scotland, leading to a democratic disconnect and disempowerment of local communities. This is mirrored by the huge landholdings of a small number of individuals and lack of transparency about land ownership. The Scottish Government has promised to address this, and is consulting on a Land Reform Bill.
There has recently been an exchange of emails and a submission to the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee by Charles Fforde. The documents can be read via this link. Readers of the Voice will no doubt be able to draw their own conclusions about the views of Arran’s major private landowner on land reform from this.
Scotland has the most concentrated land ownership in the developed world. Just 432 people own half of the private land. Land prices are far too high – this is why rents are extortionate, and why young people are leaving when they can’t even get a scrap of land for housing.
For Scotland to flourish and every community to have a say over their resources and their future, we need a strong land reform bill that really tackles all these issues. We’re up against a wealthy landowning lobby who want to water down the Scottish government’s proposals – so we must make our voice heard! We can tell our MSPs to back the five demands of the #OurLand campaign and make sure we get a bill that can change Scotland for the better.
The Our Land Campaign was set up by Common Weal, Women for Independence, the Scottish Land Action Movement and campaigners Andy Wightman and Lesley Riddoch to highlight the way unavailable and unaffordable land blights development in the countryside and cities. Click this link to find out more.
On the 25th of September Lesley Riddoch generously came over to Arran to meet with local people at an event organised by ACLI, the Arran Community Land Initiative. Lesley gave a short presentation about what was happening with the Land Reform Bill (a continual process of watering-down its contents) and what other areas of the country are facing (and achieving!) There was then an impassioned debate about the problems here on Arran, such as the foreshore issues at Brodick beach and Lamlash green, the lack of affordable housing for young people, and the difficulties faced by tenant farmers and smallholders. There was a certain amount of resignation, as well as anger, evident as people described their attempts over the years to improve land and housing matters on the island for residents, in the face of the different interests of landowners and a remote county council. Lesley attempted to inspire those present with examples of progress in other parts of Scotland (Eigg was one example), but there was also a sense of disappointment with the SNP over its land reform promises. Perhaps the clearest message was that our politics are broken, and that we cannot rely on politicians, whose main concern is re-election, to make the changes ordinary folk need to improve their lives – we have to organise and do it for ourselves!
