This Land Belongs To All Of Us
Land is power. And for too long, that power has been concentrated in too few hands.
Scotland has a population of 5.5 million, yet half our country is owned by around 400 people: a tiny minority of aristocrats, absentee billionaires, and international corporations – some so secretive that their own neighbours don’t even know who they are.
The Scottish Greens believe this isn’t inevitable. It’s a political choice. And political choices can be changed.
Everyone should benefit from the land around them and have a meaningful say in how it is used. Fragile rural communities can be revitalised by new inhabitants and fairer land use, but only when monopoly landowners no longer hold unchecked power over housing, livelihoods, and local economies.
Urban communities, too, deserve far greater support to own and shape spaces in towns and cities. Where communities have taken ownership – from the Isle of Eigg to Glasgow’s Kinning Park Complex – we see what’s possible: affordable houses, thriving communities and renewed hope.
Our vision is clear: land must be a shared asset for the common good, not a commodity for a privileged few. At a time of climate and nature emergency, how our land is owned and managed matters more than ever. The Scottish Greens will fight for transformative land reform – for bold legislation that diversifies land ownership, strengthens community right to buy, and finally addresses urban land reform.
- Deliver a radical Land Reform Bill to limit how much land can be owned by any individual or company to a maximum of 500 hectares, unless it can be proved that ownership will make a significant contribution to the common good.
- Introduce Compulsory Sale Order powers to force the sale of sites that have been consistently left vacant and derelict in cities, towns and rural areas.
- Apply a Public Interest Test on those who want to purchase large areas of land, which would exclude overseas owners and overturn the concentration of land ownership in the hands of a few.
- Empower communities to take over ownership of more land by updating Community Right to Buy legislation to make it easier.
- Expand the opportunities for communities to manage more sites that are critical for tackling the climate and nature emergencies, including woodlands and rewilding sites, local energy projects, and opportunities for hutting and nature connection.
- Protect the public’s right to roam, which has opened up Scotland’s great outdoors to all for more than two decades.
- Ensure that spending time in Scotland’s outdoors is accessible and affordable for disabled people and minority ethnic groups, investing in transport infrastructure to support this.
- Improve transparency about who owns and receives public subsidies for managing Scotland’s land, through completion of Scotland’s Land Registry and creating a comprehensive and publicly-accessible online map.
- Carry out a review of succession law to ensure the inheritance of landholdings does not contribute further to Scotland’s monopoly of landownership.