1 Introduction
1. The Committee published Land Reform in Scotland:
Interim Report in March 2014.[1]
This report identified key issues and questions arising from the
written and oral evidence we had taken following the publication
of the 432:50-Towards a comprehensive land reform agenda for
Scotland briefing paper published by the Committee in July
2013.[2]
2. Our interim report and the 432:50 paper
both set out the case for a comprehensive land reform agenda.
Oxfam Scotland told us that:
the starting point for effective land reform
needs to be a recognition that political and economic change in
Scotland has delivered for the better off, but has simultaneously
generated substantial poverty, an intensification of the way in
which it is experienced and its concentration in particular localities.[3]
3. The interim report identified four topics on which
we wished to hear further evidence. These were: whether the ownership
of estates through charitable companies set up by private owners
is in the public interest and how governance of such organisations
should best be organised; how the fiscal framework of agricultural
land might be reformed to meet the concerns of tenant farmers;
how the new Common Agricultural Policy framework can best support
farmers; and the extent to which land is owned in offshore jurisdictions
as part of individual corporate tax planning.
4. Since the publication of the interim report we
have taken evidence from HM Revenue and Customs, Tax Research
UK, Global Witness, the Institute of Chartered Accountants Scotland
and Rio Tinto Alcan to address these questions. This report sets
out the developments since the publication of the interim report,
notably the work of the Land Reform Review Group established by
the Scottish Government in 2012, the publication of their final
report The Land of Scotland and the Common Good and the
Scottish Government's Consultation on the Future of Land Reform
in Scotland. The Scottish Government have also published their
Review of Agricultural Holdings Legislation in January
2015.
1 Scottish Affairs Committee, Eighth Report of Session
2013-14, Land Reform in Scotland: Interim Report, HC 877 Back
2
Scottish Affairs Committee, 432:50 Towards a comprehensive land reform agenda for Scotland Back
3
Oxfam Scotland (LRS0048) para 3 Back
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