Land reform campaigners have long called for a register to increase transparency
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Scotland will create a public register of land ownership as part of sweeping land reforms proposed by its government, Land Reform Minister Aileen McLeod said.
Proposed legislation on land reform will be amended to include the introduction of the register, she said.
"This is something I believe can benefit our country, particularly communities who wish to have more of a say over how land in their area is used and managed," McLeod was quoted as saying in The National newspaper on Thursday.
Although more than 80 percent of Scots live in urban areas, land reform is a powerful political issue, partly because of inequalities in ownership but also because of the Highland Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries, when landowners evicted small-scale farmers, sometimes brutally and at short notice, to make way for sheep.
Nicola Sturgeon, first minister and leader of the ruling Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), has made land reform her highest-profile legislative priority before parliamentary elections in May.
Land reform campaigners have long called for a register to increase transparency in Scotland, where fewer than 450 landlords are estimated to own half of all privately held land.
A draft law introduced by the SNP in June 2015 proposes far-reaching changes to many aspects of rural life in Scotland, from ending tax relief for shooting estates to allowing the compulsory sale of land if owners are standing in the way of development.
Thursday's announcement follows a report by parliament's Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee which said the proposed legislation was inadequate in areas such as transparency of land ownership and relations between landowners and tenant farmers.
Though part of the United Kingdom, Scotland has its own elected parliament which can pass laws and has limited tax-raising powers. It is responsible for 'devolved' issues such as education and health.
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