Scottish Ministers are under pressure from rural business leaders to resist amendments to the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill that critics warn could turn a well-intentioned policy into a “bureaucratic nightmare.”
The Bill, introduced to the Scottish Parliament in March 2024, seeks to reform how large landholdings are owned and managed.
Its central aims are to increase transparency, strengthen community engagement and ensure that land in Scotland is used in the public interest.
Under the current proposals, owners or operators of holdings exceeding 1,000 hectares would be required to prepare and publish detailed land management plans setting out how land is used and how community engagement has informed decision-making.
The legislation also proposes greater powers for a new Land and Communities Commissioner to investigate compliance and issue penalties for breaches.
Scottish Land & Estates (SLE), which represents rural land-based businesses, says a series of amendments put forward by opposition MSPs could significantly increase red tape and costs for farmers and estate owners.
The organisation warns that plans could cost thousands of pounds to prepare, with annual reviews and strict reporting requirements adding further administrative burden.
SLE chief executive Sarah-Jane Laing said: “Land management plans, in principle, were a good idea in that they could encourage greater openness and help inform communities what an estate or large farm business does.
“Instead, the whole issue has grown arms and legs and we now have a blizzard of amendments which would have the effect of making land management plans a big stick with which to beat land businesses.
"These amendments include suggestions to make it compulsory to review a management plan every year instead of every five years.
"This would be an absurd level of bureaucracy and nowhere else in society do we see perfectly legitimate businesses being held to this level of public scrutiny.”
Laing added that more “punitive” measures risk discouraging investment and ambition across Scotland’s rural economy.
“With the cost of falling foul of these provisions being so high, the government is sucking the ambition out of the sector, creating a race to the bottom for the least risky management plans possible."
She urged Ministers to reject the amendments, warning that additional regulation could undermine jobs, investment and environmental work.
“Imposing this extraordinary level of red tape would put at risk investment by land businesses in employment and their ongoing commitments to produce public benefit such as environmental biodiversity projects.”
Supporters of the Bill argue that reform is necessary to tackle Scotland’s highly concentrated pattern of land ownership and to ensure communities have a greater say in how land is managed.
Ministers maintain that the proposals aim to make land management more transparent while supporting sustainable development.
MSPs are expected to hold a final debate on the Bill in the coming weeks, with the outcome likely to shape the future of rural land governance in Scotland for decades to come.
