“While the work is necessary in the long term, the kind of options many developers are seeking often cover particularly large areas in order to give them maximum flexibility and can be in place for five or more years before they are enacted. This creates a lot of uncertainty for landowners.
“We are keen to see policies that allow for all parties who may be impacted by major infrastructure projects to engage earlier and give everyone more clarity on what is involved and how they might be affected. This would allow projects to move forward more quickly and prevent misunderstandings arising between communities, developers and landowners.”
Hamish Lean, Partner and Head of Rural Property Partner at Shepherd and Wedderburn, outlined the potential upsides and downsides of proposed land reform policy and gave the audience an insight into the statutory agreements and powers that might be invoked when major infrastructure projects pass through rural land.
“The Land Reform Bill proposes new powers for Scottish Ministers to make regulations enforcing community engagement on landowners with holdings in excess of a certain size, and also expands on the existing rules surrounding Community Right to Buy.
“It is also proposed to give powers to Scottish Ministers to regulate how certain holdings are sold.
“There is a proposed duty for Scottish Ministers to publish a model lease designed for letting land so it can be used either wholly or partly for environmental purposes, and the introduction of rights relating to small landholdings including the right to buy and diversification.
“Reforms will also be made to the process of resumption from agricultural holdings – the process by which a landlord may remove land from an agricultural tenancy.
“These are potentially sweeping changes to legislation that deals with the ownership, management and use of land in Scotland and everyone working in the rural sector needs to be aware of them.”
The event concluded with the panel taking questions from the floor - with topics raised by the audience including compulsory purchase agreements, the scale and number of projects required to bring offshore wind power onshore, and planning consultation reform.
Chair Emma Robertson closed the event with thanks to the speakers and the audience for their contribution to a robust debate covering key issues which would affect the future success of Scotland’s rural sector.
