Review of powers of communities to acquire land or
buildings.
A review of Community Rights to Buy will begin this summer to
look at how effective current powers are.
Community Right to Buy has now been in use for 20 years. During
that time, there have been several additions and amendments to
the original rights in the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, and
various reports and recommendations on how to improve and amend
them further.
Speaking during a visit to the Heart of Newhaven, a community
facility which was bought by the community in 2021 through the
Asset Transfer process, Rural Affairs Secretary said:
“Ownership or control of land and buildings – both urban and
rural – is a powerful tool for communities to drive change and
achieve their goals. It can help to develop the local economy,
provide activities and services, and boost community identity.
“We want to increase community ownership as an important way of
delivering our vision for Scotland and our three central missions
of equality, opportunity and community.
“This review will begin in Summer 2024, following introduction of
the Land Reform Bill and report at the end of 2025 and will cover
all the current rights to buy and will look at legislative and
procedural aspects of the rights to see if new legislation is
needed.”
Background
The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 introduced the first two
community rights to buy. The Community Right to Buy (Part
2) gave rural communities the right to register an interest in
assets. Should the owner choose to sell, the community
could then be granted the right to buy that asset without it
being offered to anyone else. The Crofting Community Right
to Buy (Part 3) gave communities in crofting areas a right to
compulsory purchase of assets, whether or not the owner wishes to
sell.
The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 then amended the
Community Right to Buy to widen the rights to urban
communities. It also introduced the Community Right to Buy
Abandoned, Neglected or Detrimental Land (Part 3A). This is
a compulsory purchase right for land that is abandoned, neglected
or detrimental to the environmental wellbeing of communities.
The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2018 introduced a further
compulsory right, the Right to Buy Land to Further Sustainable
Development (Part 5). This compulsory right does not need
land to be in a certain condition and allows communities to
nominate a third party purchase on their behalf.
