Land Reform Review Group

[Darren]

/http://www.andywightman.com/?p=1516
/

/Pictured with Richard Lochhead At the Old Bank in Neilston are Board 
members of the Land Reform Review Group left to right are Dr Sarah 
Skerratt, Dr Alison Elliot (Chair), and Professor James Hunter./

The Scottish Government today announced the remit for the Land Reform 
Review Group. The full Press Release is here 
<http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2012/08/land-reform23082012> 
and the remit is reproduced below. (UPDATE 27 Aug -- Press Release seems 
to have been removed from Scottish Government website. Here is a copy 
<http://www.andywightman.com/docs/landreform_pr_20120824.pdf> downloaded 
from wired-gov.net]

EXTRACT FROM PRESS RELEASE

The Scottish Government is committed to generating innovative and 
radical proposals on land reform that will contribute to the success of 
Scotland for future generations.

The relationship between the land and the people of Scotland is 
fundamental to the wellbeing, economic success, environmental 
sustainability and social justice of the country. The structure of land 
ownership is a defining factor in that relationship: it can facilitate 
and promote development, but it can also hinder it. In recent years, 
various approaches to land reform, not least the expansion of community 
ownership, have contributed positively to a more successful Scotland by 
assisting in the reduction of barriers to sustainable development, by 
strengthening communities and by giving them a greater stake in their 
future. The various strands of land reform that exist in Scotland 
provide a firm foundation for further developments.

The Government has therefore established a Land Reform Review Group.

The Group will identify how land reform will:

· Enable more people in rural and urban Scotland to have a stake in the 
ownership, governance, management and use of land, which will lead to a 
greater diversity of land ownership, and ownership types, in Scotland;

· Assist with the acquisition and management of land (and also land 
assets) by communities, to make stronger, more resilient, and 
independent communities which have an even greater stake in their 
development;

· Generate, support, promote, and deliver new relationships between 
land, people, economy and environment in Scotland;
In making these inquiries, the Group will bear in mind:

· the sustainability of its proposals for reform, including their 
economic impact;

· the importance of good stewardship and governance of land;

· the relationship between urban and rural concerns and opportunities;

· the relationship between local and national interests.

The Group will:

· seek representations from, and consult with, organisations (private, 
public and voluntary sector) and individuals with an involvement or 
interest in land ownership, farming, crofting, forestry, the natural 
heritage, social and affordable housing, planning, economic and 
community development, and with others as appropriate;

· draw on the advice of the Advisers appointed to it;

· make its own independent assessment of this advice and of the varying 
(and possibly conflicting) views put to it.

The Group will make:

· Interim Reports to Ministers on such improvements as the Group 
considers can readily and speedily be made to existing legislative and 
other means of bringing about land reform;

· a draft Final Report to Ministers by December 2013.

It is expected by the Government that the Group's Final Report will include:

· recommendations as to how, by legislative and other means, further 
land reform can be promoted and secured;

· an indicative analysis of the economic, social and environmental 
impact and sustainability of its proposals

· indication of how the impact of the recommendations on land reform 
might be measured, monitored and otherwise assessed.

END OF EXTRACT

*This is a welcome and wide-ranging remit.*

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