Background
Supporting more diverse patterns of land ownership is central to the Scottish Land Commission's work, including helping to create the conditions for communities to have greater influence and control over the land where they live. This SEFARI Gateway Fellowship looked at the development of large-scale community landownership in Scotland and explored why the rate of new acquisitions has slowed in recent years. In this blog, lead researcher Dr Bobby Macaulay comments on the findings of the study (co-authored with Alys Daniels-Creasey and Catriona Mallows), and highlights the opportunities and challenges facing community ownership today.
Introduction
There is a significant and growing evidence base indicating the contribution that large-scale community landownership makes to sustainable rural development in Scotland. Despite this, the rate of large-scale community land acquisitions has slowed over the past decade, with only a very small number being considered by the most recent Scottish Land Fund. In addition, large-scale community land assets (defined as those over 500ha), are highly concentrated in one area of Scotland- the northwest Highlands and the Western Isles.
Why?
In asking this question over the past couple of years, I have heard a wide array of possible reasons, based largely on anecdotal evidence. This study sought to add some robust substantiation to these perspectives. It delves into the historical and geographical disparities in large-scale community land ownership, specifically considering the factors affecting ‘demand’ for new acquisitions, and how we can assess, measure or even understand it.
While this was a rapid exploration of these questions and the realities of community landownership today, this research raises fundamental questions surrounding the purpose and relative success of this approach to development. Those defining the future of community land policy, support and funding must consider what the ultimate goal of this aspect of land reform is, in order to better design the approach to getting there. Because the land question hasn’t gone away, it’s just gotten more complicated.
Background
While some land has been in community hands for over a century, the modern community landownership movement in Scotland emerged in the early 1990s and started to become recognised as an effective approach to community-led sustainable rural development. The approach involves community organisations taking legal ownership of large-scale land assets and managing them for the benefit of local people. Over time, a range of support, funding and legal mechanisms have been developed to facilitate further acquisitions, leading to a broader movement of community-owned land in Scotland.
The purpose of this Fellowship was to establish a baseline of knowledge as to the historical and geographical spread of large-scale community landownership and reasons for its uneven development and expansion. It also sought to identify key barriers to large-scale community land acquisition and suggest solutions to them, highlighting future research, policy and practice priorities which can support the continued development of large-scale community ownership. We assessed quantitative data on acquisitions over time, as well as understanding the nuance of this data through interviews and surveys with community members and experts involved in successful and unsuccessful acquisitions.
What the research found: where community ownership is happening and why growth has stalled
The study found that, despite the numerous developments and expansions of support, funding and acquisitions mechanisms instituted over the past twenty-five years, the rate of new acquisitions has remained fairly consistent since the early-1990s, aside from two short periods of rapid expansion (2005-2007 and 2015-2016).
The vast majority of large-scale community land acquisitions are located in the Western Isles and Highlands, accounting for over 75% of acquisitions and over 94% of hectarage between them. While these areas continue to dominate the sector, in recent years there have been new acquisitions in other areas, including Orkney and Dumfries and Galloway. Accompanying this, the types of assets being acquired has also changed recently, with crofting estates being replaced by nature reserves and other land uses.
The barriers holding communities back
The research found there was consensus among respondents that interest in large-scale community land acquisitions remains, but there are a number of perceived barriers limiting further large-scale community land acquisitions. These include: Stretched community capacity and insufficient support from external organisations; Lack of ongoing support for the acquisition from local residents; Insufficient available funding, and constraining conditions on its use; Overcomplicated and ineffectual legislative mechanisms for acquisition; Reliance on a willing and cooperative seller; Lack of appetite for risk both within the local community and from funders.
What could help unlock future acquisitions
To address these, suggested solutions included: Increasing institutional support and community capacity; Improving promotion and communication of previous successes; Strengthening and simplifying legislative mechanisms; Improving and promoting routes to community empowerment short of ownership; Enhancing availability of funding and support for the acquisition process.
Why these findings matter
Demand for large-scale community land acquisition remains strong, but can be silenced by increasingly insurmountable barriers, leading some groups to abandon hope of a buyout and direct their efforts elsewhere. Understanding the nature of these barriers enables support organisations and those advocating for an expansion of community ownership to target their efforts more effectively and tap into hidden pockets of latent demand.
Informing future policy and funding
The findings offer direct relevance to future policy and structural support from organisations such as the Scottish Land Commission and Scottish Land Fund, both of whom are committed to expanding community landownership. This research also challenges claims that the community land movement has stalled or ceased to be relevant, and indeed may even indicate a stronger case for community ownership in the face of a rapidly changing land market in Scotland.
Recognising the pressures facing community organisations
We hope that the dissemination of these findings helps to reflect the experiences of community organisations, many of whom have highlighted these challenges over a number of years and are being tasked with greater and increasingly complex responsibilities, often with limited capacity and support. We hope that these findings serve as an accurate reflection of their ongoing struggles.
Looking ahead
The findings suggest that the challenge is not a lack of demand, but a system that makes large-scale acquisition difficult to achieve in practice. Progress would require coordinated action across policy, funding and support structures.
Specifically, an explicit policy vision of the purpose and goals of community landownership would help to clarify the extent to which such historical and geographical disparities should be considered concerning. Such a vision would also set out how success of community landownership should be measured, and indeed whether more should be done to expand it.
