Article
Reform should help, not punish landowners
Rural estates are not relics of a bygone age but diverse businesses that stimulate growth
In considering the benefits of economic growth in a civilised society, John F Kennedy was expressing a truism when he said: “A rising tide lifts all boats”. Governments in both Westminster and Holyrood espouse the need to focus on growth, but does the policymaking and decision-making match the rhetoric?
Talk of enabling growth is cheap. For sure, we live in times of constrained resources, global uncertainty and environmental challenges. But that places even greater demands on our political leaders to be decisive and surefooted.
There are so many areas worthy of focus. One that is too often ignored or misunderstood is rural Scotland. From the Borders to the Highlands, there are enterprising people striving to do their best while being frustrated by so many roadblocks. Political representation of rural communities may mean well, but can we honestly say that we are providing such communities with the catalysts to deliver a better future?
Let’s consider the Land Reform Bill that is progressing through the Scottish parliament. Scottish ministers declare that it is an important journey that must be prominent on the political agenda. Really? Their own research indicates that it is far from a priority for the vast majority of the public.
Nevertheless, for the minority with an interest, it divides opinion. Those promoting reform think it’s weak, but at least as many say it goes too far.
What is undeniable, however, is that it has become all too easy to cast large estates in a light that is far from modern reality: that rural estates are relics from a bygone age.
As chairman of Buccleuch, I oversee a business, not in substance unlike other businesses I have managed, that sets out to support jobs that are essential to families, focuses on our communities and understands the needs of our environment. We must not allow dated characterisations of the world of estate management to misinform decision-making. The world has moved on. We have happily engaged with communities to sell land or even given land that we have concluded is better in their hands.
We have invested in visitor facilities at Dalkeith Country Park, which is an important step in the regeneration of that area outside Edinburgh. So many estates have followed a similar path. Recently we entered into an agreement with Center Parcs on the provision of land that will be transformational for the Scottish Borders.
As someone who lives in the Borders, I am acutely aware of how welcome this development is in terms of job creation and economic stimulus. Like so many of our peers, our business is diverse. From commercial property to renewable energy to farming to forestry, and so much more.
In the northeast Moray Estates is building the new town of Tornagrain, Atholl Estates burns the flame of rural enterprise in Perthshire. Luss Estates demonstrates modern estate management on the shores of Loch Lomond. The common thread, that Scottish government must recognise as crucial, is the delivery of housing provision, renewable energy, jobs, and the tackling of climate change through peatland restoration and tree planting all of which are at the heart of government rural policy.
Government ministers and politicians of all parties, who have visited estates, know these facts yet seem unwilling to acknowledge that this is the more accurate overall picture of large-scale land ownership today rather than historic stereotypes.
One can only hope that ministers pursue land reform legislation that serves communities rather than gratuitously punishing landowners. We must acknowledge that landowners have embraced change over the last few decades and are heavily involved in stimulating growth in rural areas.
The experience of dealing with the Langholm Initiative is salutary. Its purchase of land from Buccleuch for the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve in the south of Scotland was the epitome of what is possible when open, transparent engagement takes place and it did not need legislation to happen. Even community bodies that have acquired land now know that buying it is one matter, the challenges of how to manage it are another. Large-scale landownership is being presented within political discourse as somehow undesirable and there should be greater fragmentation in order to meet an ill-defined and unquantified demand.
However, Scottish ministers, private landowners and community bodies owning land know all too well that scale is essential to deliver viable land management projects.
Natural capital is one of Scotland’s greatest strengths and there is so much more that can be done collectively in this area to deliver wider benefit. Rural businesses, of all sizes, should be encouraged and incentivised all with a view to clearing those obstacles to growth. Our rural communities are as special as any others in our country.
We must make the most of what we have by working together, by putting any prejudices to one side. As Michael Jordan, the basketball star, once pondered, “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” Why can’t we make it happen?
