WEALTHY landowners should face a limit on how much of Scotland they can buy, a Labour MSP has said.

Mercedes Villalba will launch a public consultation on a Land Justice Bill that she intends to lodge at Holyrood.

It could restrict the number of acres one person could legally purchase and offer communities a greater say in any sales process.

The North East MSP believes it could overhaul the way that Scotland’s countryside is owned and managed - with publicly owned community trusts and co-operatives having the option of taking over land.

The consultation - which will open later this year - will examine the potential scale of the cap with options starting from 1,500 acres, for how much land an individual could legally own.

Crofters, the vast majority of farmers, allotment holders, and other small scale land-owners will be exempt from any proposed legislation.

The Herald:

Ms Villalba, pictured above, said: “One of the greatest symbols of inequality in Scotland is that of having such a huge concentration of land in the hands of a small number of very wealthy individuals.

“It’s indefensible that the SNP Government has left this archaic arrangement untouched during its 15 years in power.

“Even now ministers are only making vague promises about greater transparency on a public right to know who owns the land.    

“This will do nothing to tackle the centuries old entrenched inequality of land ownership in Scotland.

“It’s high time that the Scottish Parliament embraced meaningful and substantial reform, by passing a Land Justice bill. 

“Allowing community representatives and cooperatives to manage land for the benefit of everyone, would be a timely and modernising reform.” 

Ms Villalba intends to launch a consultation on a ‘Land Justice’ draft bill before the Autumn.

The cap would be created by establishing in law a presumption against ownership above a limit set. Only in circumstances where it can be shown a purchase of a greater area of land would be in the public interest may a purchase be authorised after public consultation and consideration by a regulator.

The proposals for the cap at a level of 1,500 or 2,000 acres means that around 3 per cent of all Scotland’s land holdings would be affected, representing only the largest land-holdings in Scotland.

One football pitch and immediate surrounds is approximately two acres of land. So, 1,500 acres = approximately 750 football pitches.

Existing land holdings that were not working in the full public interest would be subject to an investigation by a regulator and, consistent with meeting the terms of  European Convention of Human Rights and could be broken-up for wider ownership with community trusts and co-operatives given a pre-emptive right to buy.