Scottish land reform proposals are flawed and shallow


30 August 1999


Scottish land reform proposals are flawed and shallow


The Scottish Executives land reform proposals are based on a “flawed, shallow and partial analysis of the problem”, according to a guest contributor to The Guardian

.


Its plans also reveal a “timidity and poverty of imagination” when it comes to tackling landed power, Andy Wightman says.


Wightman points out that Scotland has the most concentrated pattern of ownership in the world – just 343 landowners own over half the entire privately owned rural land in the country.


He says the reform proposals will do little to change this situation. He advocates giving legal rights to children to inherit land, placing limits on the size of holdings and giving tenant farmers the right to buy their farms.




  • The Guardian 30/08/99 page 14

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