Scotland is seeking views on how owners of large landholdings should involve local communities in land management and consider requests to lease land or establish crofts. The Scottish Government's consultation, published on October 20, remains open until January 26, 2027. It covers the detail needed to implement community-engagement obligations under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025, alongside draft guidance on identifying the holdings affected.
The accompanying guidance expressly says the duties are not yet in force. The exercise is therefore about designing regulations and guidance, not announcing that every affected owner must immediately submit a plan or accept a community request. Separate measures covering advance notification of land sales and possible division into smaller lots are outside this consultation.
Which land would be covered?
The draft guidance describes a large landholding as qualifying land totalling more than 1,000 hectares, under the ownership or control of one person, groups of persons or connected persons. The areas must be contiguous under the Act's definition, meaning their boundaries are within 250 metres of one another.
Separate property titles do not necessarily mean separate holdings. Land can be counted together where nearby areas have different ownership arrangements but the owners are connected. The guidance tells people who own only their home and no other land, or who only rent land, that the new duties do not apply to them.
For owners within scope, land management plans would explain ownership and long-term objectives, including potential sales. The statutory framework also requires information about engagement with tenants and communities and how that engagement influenced the plan. Plans must address matters including public access, deer management, climate adaptation and biodiversity, and have regard to registered local place plans covering the land.
The consultation asks how much further detail should be required. Questions include whether plans should identify owners by name, link to relevant ownership registers, provide a management contact and include maps meeting land-registration standards. These are questions for respondents, rather than a settled list of new disclosure requirements.
A proposed public portal and community requests
Ministers expect plans to be available through a single website hosted by a public-sector organisation. They are asking whether an administrative fee should be charged to owners submitting plans, people viewing them, neither group or both. The paper does not set a fee or confirm that access will be charged for.
The proposed definition of communities centres on people and organisations based in the locality. Groups connected by a shared interest would be included only if they could demonstrate regular, ongoing use of the land. The paper seeks views on putting that definition in guidance, allowing it to be adjusted more easily than regulations.
Community bodies would also have a route to ask owners to consider leasing land or buildings, or applying to have eligible land constituted as crofts. The consultation considers what a reasonable request should contain, including the area sought, intended use, relationship to the holding and desired lease length. Consideration would not guarantee acceptance.
It asks whether owners should face maximum times for acknowledging and answering requests, and whether those times should be enforceable rules or guidance. Reasons for agreeing or refusing, possible amendments and further questions after a refusal are also under discussion. No fixed response deadline is established in the paper.
Enforcement would follow a transition
The framework requires plans to be reviewed at least every five years. The consultation proposes judging whether changes need renewed community engagement by their likely local impact. Examples include a substantial switch from farming to forestry or changes to public access. Routine factual corrections and minor operational changes would not normally trigger another engagement exercise.
The Land and Communities Commissioner would enforce the obligations and support compliance. The consultation offers grace-period options of six, 12, 18 or 24 months before enforcement begins, and asks whether implementation should be phased across different groups of holdings. It also seeks views on transition periods when ownership changes.
The indicative timetable places commencement of the community-engagement regulations in spring 2029, subject to parliamentary agreement, with the portal going live and the enforcement grace period beginning then. This is a planning assumption, not a guaranteed legal start date. Responses can be submitted online, by email or by post using the routes in the official consultation; respondents need not answer every question.
Related UK coverage: Dalimss News has reported on England's local-plan submission extension and proposed standby-power rules.
