French Government sells Scottish forests
Scotland’s pattern of private rural landownership is becoming more concentrated as first revealed in my preliminary analysis of who owns Scotland published in March. A final 2024 report on the topic will be published next month in November.
As discussed in that report, one of the main reasons behind the increasing concentrated pattern is the acquisition of more and more land by existing landowners. This trend is notable in the forestry sector where Gresham House is now the third largest landowner in Scotland (though the company denies that it in fact owns any land – a claim I will examine in a forthcoming blog).
Such acquisitions are typically financed by investors who are attracted by the capital returns, tax breaks and relative security compared with many other asset classes. Quite how long these companies will hold onto their land before selling is unclear as it is dependent on ongoing financial evaluation as to future rates of return which can be affected by tax changes (hello forthcoming budget), market sentiment, government regulation and the international economics of forest products.
One company that has built up a modest portfolio (at least by the standards of many other players in the market is a French company called Woodland Invest, an investment fund based in Paris in the offices of La Société Forestière, a French forest management company.
Woodland Invest owns over 2500 hectares of land in Scotland in 16 separate landholdings from Ayrshire and Roxburgh-shire to the Isle of Skye, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire. The company has now put its landholdings up for sale. You can see details and watch a dramatic video here. A copy of the sales brochure can be downloaded here (4.5Mb pdf).
Described as a “rare opportunity to purchase a ready-made forestry portfolio of scale and nearly 80,000 tons of C02”, the portfolio is one of the largest sales of forest in Scotland in recent years. Woodland Invest is an investment vehicle in which the largest investor (with over 25% of the shareholding is the Caisse des Dépôts, the French state investment bank founded in 1816 by Louis XVIII.
Of course, land in France is regulated by Safer (Société d’aménagement foncier et d’établissement rural), the focus of an excellent paper by Dr Kirsteen Shields and published by the Scottish Land Commission
This sale will be unaffected by the latest effort to regulate land sales in the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, 2024 because, although Sellers will have to notify Scottish Ministers of an sales of or from a landholding of over 1000ha, the land must be held as one contiguous parcel. The Woodland invest portfolio well exceeds this 100 ha threshold but is held in 16 separate parcels ranging from 22 ha in size to 572ha.
The French state and French investors stand to profit from their investment in Scottish Forest land all aided an abetted by the lack of any serious, structural land reform in the past 25 years of devolution.
I despair.
Personally I am against any foreign national whether an individual, group, company etc ever being allowed to own and in SCOTLAND.
There are objections in Mayo to this company
https://www.mayonews.ie/news/local-news/1437681/craggagh-locals-lodge-objection-to-department-of-agriculture-over-controversial-forestry-plans.html
The previous article with pdf was excellent. For me, the pdf is particularly useful – much easier to read than the faint font used in your blog, Andy.
Indeed, land is the latest (perhaps it was always) the best asset – for ‘save the planet’ investments, playing with and earning money from debts and capital gains when it’s sold.
What happened to the SNP’s plans for ‘independence’? One can’t be independent if one’s land is owned by foreigners.. I thought that was what wars were always fought for. – preventing outsiders using local assets i.e. colonialism..
If you are a Party member, I’m trying to get a motion to Council in December to fire up land reform and have something radical in the 2026 manifesto. There’s an SNP Land Reform Group on Facebook. It’s very disheartening but we have to keep trying.
Don’t despair Andy. Your work is invaluable. We all recognise (and share) the frustration though.
Ps a darker or bolder font would be really helpful.
Hi John,
Thank you for your comment.
Your browser should have a function where it can be white on black or enlarge the text.
They came they bought and they conquered. First thing they brought to the community table was ‘to wipe out (not minimise but annihilate) the red deer population; the indigenous eco ploughman of peat paths and braesides, last year 300 were shot and killed during the night’. Next was the sacking of two gamekeepers. Both lived on the estate and therefore had to leave. Our shepherd who has been building a healthy flock sees off the last of his sheep today. He and his family will be gone by the end of November. There are plans to kill off mountain hare. We have hardly any left so that won’t take long. One thing that cannot be controlled as it was for centuries by cattle, is the bracken. Like a funeral blanket it continues to creep up hills and through glens in an ever ending rampage of destroying all in its path.
Shocking. Have you ‘complained’ to your Parliamentary (UK and Scottish) reps? Please discuss this with your nearest Reform UK group. This issue of people from outside buying land here needs to be looked at very urgently at the political level – not just discussed in blogs!
This just makes me want to weep.
Great work.
On the Gresham House thing, their third position in the league table simply needs a small asterisk referring to the land being owned by Funds managed by Gresham House.
Gresham House will be general partner to the Funds with complete authority and control over the land owned by the funds and will be paid both annual management fees and an allocation of fund proceeds when assets are sold.
They have a partial ownership interest in the land and the land is under their full control and management so any squealing on narrow questions of legal title should be silenced!!
Indeed – as General Partner they have all the powers of ownership. The limited partners cannot sell the land ergo they cannot be regarded as owners.It is (as you probably know) a number of Scottish Limited partnerships but all with GH as General partner.