Why the review of Scotland’s Rights to Buy matters

Community ownership of land and buildings is important for the sustainable development and resilience of communities.

Owning land and buildings offers communities the chance to meet their needs and provide a wide range of benefits, with community ownership of assets supporting economic opportunities and local jobs, social and wellbeing activities, local heritage and culture, housing for residents, and healthy environments.

The Scottish Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement (LRRS) sets out that, “More local communities should have the opportunity to own, lease or use buildings and land which can contribute to their community’s wellbeing and future development.” While a negotiated sale is the most straightforward way for a community to acquire assets, there are other routes for communities who want to buy land and buildings.

Since 2003, the Scottish Government has introduced and amended several rights to buy to support communities to take on ownership of land and buildings to meet the needs of their communities. These statutory routes to ownership have given communities more options. The rights to buy offer routes for communities who want to: proactively indicate their interest in a site that is of importance to local people through a Part 2 Community Right to Buy; purchase a crofting estate through a Part 3 Crofting Community Right to Buy; tackle a site causing harm using the Part 3A Right to Buy Abandoned, Neglected and Detrimental Assets, or; take on site that could be better used to meet community needs through a Part 5 Right to Buy for Sustainable Development.

As time has passed and changes have occurred in the political, economic and social contexts, it is important to consider whether the measures put in place to support community ownership still work. There is a need to ensure the rights to buy remain a viable route for communities to buy land when negotiated transfers are not possible. Recognising this, the Scottish Government committed to a welcome review of the effectiveness of the right to buy mechanisms and a formal consultation was held earlier this year with views sought on ideas shared by key stakeholders.

In our response, which has drawn on our previous research and been informed by our understanding of the LRRS principles, we set out that:

• We believe it is important that there are effective routes for communities to buy land when negotiated transfers are not possible.
• We support simplification and consolidation of statutory rights to buy but acknowledge that there may be merit in the crofting right to buy remaining separate.
• There is a need to consider the alignment between right to buy eligibility requirements (across different rights) and also with Scottish Land Fund eligibility requirements to make processes and funding easier to navigate for communities.
• We support the option for communities to nominate a third-party purchaser and think this should remain a possibility for compulsory purchase rights.
• We see greater potential for landowning public bodies to support aspiring communities as interim owners of land.
• There is a public interest in ensuring that initial registration for Part 2 remains a viable and practical option for all communities to support a planned and proactive approach to community land acquisition.
• We recognise that there are particular challenges for urban communities who wish to use rights to buy including property values, the pace of transactions and lack of transparency around ownership.

We are looking forward to seeing the analysis of responses and recommendations for change that come from the review process. The rights to buy are important mechanisms to support community ownership and it is vital that they meet the needs of communities across Scotland.