Community Ownership

The Scottish Land Fund has awarded the Langholm Initiative charity £1 million towards the purchase of 10,500 acres of Langholm Moor in the south of Scotland, which would see the local community creating a vast new nature reserve.

A bold ‘Rural New Deal’ embracing further land reform should be one of the foundations on which to rebuild Scotland’s economy and prepare a greener future, MSPs have been told.

An initiative to create a vast new nature reserve in Dumfries and Galloway through southern Scotland’s largest community land buyout is being launched today with a £3 million crowdfunding campaign to help purchase 10,500 acres of Langholm Moor. The ambitious plan by charity The Langholm

With the Community Right to Buy for Sustainable Development coming in to place last weekend, land commissioner Megan MacInnes looks at what it means for communities and for land reform. Last weekend marked the launch of the latest in the Scottish Government’s land reform toolkit – the Co

New powers, which came into force this weekend, give communities the absolute right to buy land for sustainable development and allows them to nominate a third party, such as a housing association, to purchase the land on their behalf in order to develop it in line with community needs. This opens u

Ailsa Thomson breaks down the Scottish Government's policy to empower communities and ensure people benefit more fairly from Scotland's land. As part of the Scottish Government's policy to empower communities and ensure people benefit more fairly from Scotland's land, on 26 April 2020 the right to b

One of the largest landowners in Scotland has agreed a historic transfer of land to a community trust in the Borders. The land, which has been gifted by Buccleuch’s Borders Estate to Newcastleton & District Community Trust encompasses a range of amenity sites in the village.

Two ‘strong’ community asset transfer requests have been given the green light by councillors on The Highland Council’s Communities and Place Committee. Unanimous support was given for the sale of land at South Bonar Industrial Estate at Bonar Bridge to Kyle of Sutherland Hub; and

The number of assets in community ownership is increasing in Scotland, according to new figures. An official publication from the Scottish Government presents the number of assets in community ownership, the number of community groups that own assets and the total area of assets in community ownersh

Around 100,000 new trees are to be planted throughout the Outer Hebrides by 2020 thanks to an initiative set up by a community wind farm charity. (from left) Wind farm developer Calum MacDonald, David Maclennan, SNH area officer for Argyll and Outer Hebrides, SNH chief executive Francesca Osowska an

Moray Council has approved the transfer of Forres Town Hall to the community. A Community Asset Transfer for the building was approved on Wednesday, as councillors praised the efforts of Forres Area Community Trust (FACT), the group which has been running the closure-threatened building on a transit

Copperworks Housing Association has celebrated another significant milestone in the regeneration of its local community. Following several years of hard work and determination Copperworks, with the support of local residents and the Royston Strategy Group, finally acquired a large area of derelict l

Four Highland communities in Sutherland, Caithness, Ross and Cromarty and Lochaber have had their requests for land and buildings to be leased or transferred over to them approved by the local authority. At the Highland Council's environment, development and infrastructure committee yesterday, membe

A historic estate dating back to the 17th century is set to be bought by the community thanks to a grant from the Scottish Land Fund. The Douglas Support Estate at Viewpark in Lanarkshire occupies almost 160 acres of fields and woodland, bordered by the M8.

Communities have many options to secure and develop land, but the full range of financing models is often not widely known, and there is more scope to develop innovative finance models to support community ownership, according to a new report. Scottish Land Commission chief executive Hamish Trench