…the blog and website of Andy Wightman
(Pictured above the 4703ha Abergeldie Estate sold for an undisclosed sum in 2022) The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 13 March 2024 (see end of blog for all the documents). This blog is designed
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It is twelve years since I last published comprehensive statistics on who owns Scotland. With a Land Reform Bill going through Parliament, I though it might be helpful to bring the data up to date. There are obvious connections between
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Today, I publish a report analysing large-scale land sales or rural land during 2020 – 2022. The analysis is my contribution to ongoing efforts to better understand the land market and is derived from date collected as part of the
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The Ferret ran a story today about how the asset management company, Gresham House has been taken over by US private equity form Searchlight Capital Partners LP. “The Scottish Government’s investment bank gave £50m to a forestry scheme that has
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Introduction This blog introduces my proposals for a comprehensive Land Reform Bill – one that goes far further than existing proposals in reforming Scotland’s land governance. I plan to publish further blogs outlining in more detail the background rationale and
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On 1 March 2023, NatureScot announced a £2 billion private finance pilot designed to secure landscape scale restoration of native woodlands. The project involves NatureScot and private companies Hampden and Co., Palladium and Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe) Ltd. NatureScot
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This blog post is a response to the Scottish Government’s current consultation on a future land reform bill. Detaisl can be found here. The consultation closes on Sunday 30 October 2022. The text below is not part of my consultation
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Pictured – Kinloch Castle I am just back from four days on the Isle of Rùm. There have been four phases in the history of Rùm. The first and longest was the pre-clearance period stretching from pre-history up until 1826
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This blog is the second in a series of blogs about the Scottish Government’s consultation – Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation (see this page for details). It follows a previous blog that provided an overview of the proposals.
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Introduction On Monday 4 July, the Scottish Government published its consultation paper “Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation” (1). The consultation is designed to inform the introduction of a Land Reform Bill by the end of 2023. I spent
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