Rona Macdonald

Over 500 amendments were submitted by MSPs from both sides of the debate and considered by the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee. The resulting “stage two bill” includes notable changes, particularly concerning large landholdings.

Defining large landholdings

A ‘large landholding’ was previously defined as an area of land under the same or connected ownership exceeding 3,000 hectares with special rules for islands (for land management plans) or exceeding 1,000 hectares (for sale restrictions). The stage two bill makes this threshold consistent across the bill so that it applies to an area of land within the same or connected ownership exceeding 1,000 hectares and removing any distinction for islands. An important change is made stating that when calculating total land size, any land within 250 metres of other land under the same or connected ownership is taken into account.

Land management plans

Under the bill, Scottish ministers will be empowered to make regulations requiring landowners to produce and publicly share land management plans.

The list of those who can report alleged breaches of these regulations has been expanded in the stage two bill, and maximum fines for non-compliance raised from £5K to £40K. The stage two bill also gives the new Land and Communities Commissioner (who will be a member of the Scottish Land Commission) greater powers for investigation and enforcement.

Sale restrictions

The bill introduces two major restrictions on the sale of large landholdings:

1. Prohibition on sales without notification

Initially, the bill proposed a ban on the sale of any part of a large landholding without prior notification to Scottish ministers, regardless of the size of the land parcel. This sparked criticism for potentially blocking small-scale sales. The stage two bill now permits partial land sales without ministerial notification, provided the area falls below a threshold to be set by the ministers through further regulations.

2. Prohibition on sales without a lotting decision

One of the more controversial parts of the bill is the requirement for the owner of a Large Landholding to obtain a “lotting decision” from Scottish ministers before selling their land. Ministers must determine whether the land should be divided into lots, based on a community sustainability test. Initially criticised for lacking a time limit, the stage two bill now requires the ministers to make a decision within six months. However, it does not say what happens if that deadline is missed, potentially limiting its impact.

The ministers will be required to publish guidance explaining how they will make lotting decisions and how these are expected to work in practice.

Agricultural provisions and final stage

Few amendments were made at stage two to the part of the bill relating to agricultural tenancies and some (e.g. tenant improvements, right to buy process and resumption compensation) may be reviewed more closely at stage three.

The bill has now reached its third and final stage, where MSPs can submit further amendments before the Scottish Parliament votes on the final version. The timetable for this final stage has not yet been announced and with Parliament now in recess until 31 August 2025, there will be no progress before then.

Further changes are expected, and if the bill is passed, secondary legislation will be required to implement several of its elements. Transitional provisions are also anticipated to ease the shift to the new framework.

Rona Macdonald is a professional support lawyer at Turcan Connell. This article first appeared in The Scotsman.