One million acres

Community Land Ownership: government sets ambitious target

A strategy to significantly increase the amount of land in community ownership has been published today.

The report by the one million acre short life working group recommends a number of proposals to deliver the one million acre target by 2020 and spread the benefits of community ownership, including:

• stimulate demand for community owned land through raising awareness
• build capacity of communities to take land ownership projects forward
• improve access to support services and develop a network of support providers
• address issues around the availability of land and barriers to the supply of land

The report identified 480,000 acres of land already in community ownership, which has recently been increased to over 500,000 acres by the acquisition of land by The Pairc Trust since the report was finalised.

Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Aileen McLeod said: “I welcome this report from the one million acre short life working group, which looks at ways to reach our target of one million acres of community owned land by 2020. This ambitious target has the potential to transform the fortunes of communities across the country.

“I would like to thank the group for all their hard work and I look forward to considering the recommendations in this report alongside current land reform legislation to help ensure we empower communities with practical powers as well as support sustainability.”

The one million acre short life working group final report is available here: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/12/5735