Chamber and committees

Since it was reconvened, this Parliament has delivered radical and ambitious land reform, providing a challenge to the highly concentrated pattern of land ownership across huge areas of Scotland that a number of members have mentioned.

The final version of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill that we have in front of us this evening is the product of, among many other things, a parliamentary marathon of amendments over the past week or two. I know that there are people in the gallery—at least one of them is a constituent of mine—who have loyally followed the bill’s progress evening after evening and long into the night. That indicates the desire to see the bill passed. In fact, many people have been in touch with me urging the Parliament to pass the bill. That is because the bill represents a vital step forward in allowing communities across Scotland to have a greater say over what happens to the land on which they live.

The land is an important part of who we are, and I am proud of our long-standing commitment to delivering meaningful land reform and diversifying land ownership in the public interest. However, as others have rightly pointed out, the concentration of land ownership can be seen to have worsened in recent years, with 421 landowners owning 50 per cent of private rural land. That number is down from 440 in 2012. That is despite significant progress in the number of communities that have been supported through the Scottish land fund in achieving their buyouts, in both rural and urban areas, since then. We should be proud of that progress. That said, we must do more to achieve our land reform objectives. We must close loopholes and make it easier for communities to successfully acquire land for the common good.

During our deliberations in Parliament, some members have argued that the bill does not go far enough, while Mr Mountain has, with a very thorough efficiency, sought to oppose every part of the bill for going too far. I consider the bill to be a helpful and pragmatic measure, although I am sure that we will return to the topic in future.

Among many other measures, the bill will introduce lotting provisions, which will allow communities to buy smaller portions of land on an estate’s sale. Prior notifications of land sales for communities will also be implemented through the legislation. That is important because it will prevent situations in which communities have land sold from underneath them without even being told about it. The requirement for land management plans will require greater transparency and engagement and proactive use of land assets in line with national objectives.

As of 2023, 72 per cent of community-owned land in Scotland was located in the Western Isles. In my constituency, more than 75 per cent of people live on land that is community owned. That fact is not unconnected to the role that the islands have played in the long fight across Scotland for land rights. The crofters war of the late 19th century, in response to the Highland clearances, secured the Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886, while later land raids led to the Land Settlement (Scotland) Act 1919.

Looking forward, it is important to use the legislative levers that are available to us to deal with the problems of the future. I am thinking of the need to prevent asset management companies—the names Gresham House and Oxygen Conservation spring unbidden to mind—from any aggressive acquisition of huge swathes of our hillsides. The on-going challenge for us all will be to ensure that local communities remain able to make productive and positive use of the land around them for the benefit of everyone living in their area. The bill will enable exactly that.

The bill represents an important step forward in Scotland’s progress on land reform and will empower communities to give themselves a future. I urge members to vote to pass the bill at decision time this evening.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I will be less specific and just say that, although I attempted to vote no, I do not think that that was recorded.

We should recognise at the outset that the bill before us today is the product of extensive and patient engagement by the cabinet secretary and her bill team, as well as work by the committee and its clerks.

The bill will support the on-going work of the Scottish Government and many other stakeholders across Scotland in tackling the twin crises of climate change and nature loss, which are issues that I am acutely aware of, as the nature champion for the great yellow bumblebee, and for many other reasons. Provisions in the bill aim to support the work that is already being undertaken by land managers, farmers, crofters, nature agencies, charities and the other stewards of our land to restore and protect the natural environment on which everyone in Scotland depends.

Other members have spoken, and will speak, about the first three parts of the bill, which cover targets for improving biodiversity, the environmental impact assessment legislation and the habitat regulations, and national parks. The provisions on those matters are all very positive measures, but I intend to concentrate my remarks on part 4 of the bill.

Part 4 is of particular interest to many of my constituents, as it relates to deer management. It includes provisions for controlling deer populations and addressing deer-related damage, along with measures to prevent harm and to enforce existing regulations. Specifically, the bill allows NatureScot to intervene in situations in which insufficient deer management is impeding projects or natural processes that serve to improve or restore the natural environment.

Another change to deer legislation is the removal of the need for a licence to deal in venison to stimulate the small-scale local venison market and make local venison more affordable and accessible. Scotland should certainly be promoting the wider sale of venison, given its quality and availability.

Excessive deer numbers often represent a significant threat to the livelihoods of tenant farmers and crofters through damage to crops, grazings, woodlands and habitats. Deer can also host ticks, which can carry a range of diseases that can infect humans and livestock.

Between them, tenant farmers and crofters manage about 35 per cent of Scotland’s agricultural land, including common grazings. Crofters and tenant farmers often live and work in areas of concentrated land ownership and, in some cases, have landlords with sporting interests. There can be tension between estates that want to keep shooting rights and tenants who have to deal with the damage that deer can cause if they are not controlled. I suspect that that will be a live issue as the bill progresses through the Parliament.

Under current legislation, occupiers of land, including tenant farmers and tenant crofters, have the right to cull deer only on improved land where deer damage occurs—not on unimproved land such as moorland, sea cliffs and hill grazings, which is the primary natural habitat for deer. In its final report, the deer working group therefore recommended that the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996 should be amended so that the statutory rights of occupiers to prevent damage by wild deer apply to any type of land.

Although I suspect that we will return to discuss that specific issue, I believe that the bill is a positive step for Scotland’s biodiversity, environment and rural communities, and I commend all sections of the bill to the Parliament.

Although it is welcome that house fires have decreased by 20 per cent over the past 10 years, we have witnessed an emergence of new threats, such as the rise in wildfires. Can the minister say something about the importance of the fire service’s ability to adapt to those new risks?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I could not connect, and I would have voted no.

I thank Jamie Greene for bringing this important matter to the chamber. Mr Greene’s motion begins by recognising

“the importance of funded early learning and childcare in giving every child in Scotland the best start in life”.

Scotland remains, it should be said, the only part of the UK where 1,140 hours a year of funded ELC are available to all three and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds, regardless of their parents’ working status. I believe that that helps to promote equality and make sure that every child accesses the same high-quality early learning foundation.

All that said, the motion notes that there are variations in the commencement date of the funded hours across local authorities. In the past few weeks, there have also been reports of some local authorities restricting funded hours to specific nurseries, including term-time-only nurseries.

Many individuals and organisations are pushing hard to ensure that local provision around the country meets demand. I can think of such organisations in my constituency, such as the Uist and Barra childcare forum and the new outdoor facility in North Uist, Otter Mountain, which just last week received its Care Inspectorate registration, allowing it to begin operating as an after-school and holiday childcare facility.

It is only right that I also acknowledge the challenges that are faced in rural and island areas, where the distances involved make it impossible for parents to shop around to access the childcare that they need. Some of the challenge is a consequence of the declining number of childminders. For instance, there are now no childminders left in Barra, Uist or Harris, and there has been a steep drop in the number of childminders in Lewis in recent years—a trend that is reflected in some other parts of the country. I have heard examples of parents having to take an interisland ferry journey daily to access a place at a nursery for their child, although that is an extreme, rather than a representative, example.

Last May, I carried out a survey among parents of young children in my constituency. Although it found that parents were making use of what was available and were grateful for it, 82 per cent of parents surveyed said that they or their partner were unable to work as many hours as they wanted because of childcare issues. Those views were reflected at a meeting that I held recently in Benbecula with parents on childcare. Solving the issue is not straightforward, but it is right that we debate it.

The countries that are often rightly cited as world leaders in childcare and pre-school education have available to them the fiscal levers of small independent countries. I respectfully suggest to those who come after me in the debate that, if we are willing to ask for substantial additional spending in this area, we must be willing either to identify the fiscal freedoms that would achieve that or to identify where in Scotland’s existing budget the money might be found.

I hope that there is a greater degree of consensus across the chamber on some of the other issues. Those include the need to ensure equity of access to funded provision across Scotland, the need to build on the good work that is already being done to boost the creation and sustaining of childminding businesses, the need for better tailoring of Care Inspectorate requirements, and the need to ensure good pay and conditions across private and local authority-run nurseries in order to strengthen Scotland’s childcare sector.

Thanks to the radical action that has already been taken on land reform by the Scottish Government, many community groups have been able to successfully purchase estates. Today, there are two potential buyouts at different stages in my constituency—the Bays of Harris and Bernera. How will the next phase of land reform legislation further support such community buyouts, particularly those on crofting land?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I could not connect. I would have voted no.

As someone who frequently raises the issue of affordable housing in relation to my constituency, I am pleased to speak in support of the Housing (Scotland) Bill, as well as the measures that the cabinet secretary set out recently in the Government’s housing action plan.

Housing pressures remain acute across much of Scotland, and the lack of a private rented sector in many rural communities adds to the pressures there. I think that everyone acknowledges that, despite significant investment in housing over the SNP’s time in government, challenges remain across our cities, towns and rural areas, but the bill will tackle those problems head on. This primary legislation will be useful in achieving those ends.

Under the SNP, Scotland is already the fairest place in the United Kingdom to rent, and the bill will build on that to create a sustainable, well-regulated sector. The bill is an essential piece of legislation that will help to advance tenants’ rights and tackle homelessness in Scotland. As we have heard, measures in the bill will empower tenants, proactively prevent homelessness and provide certainty to encourage continued investment across the housing sector.

The recently published housing action plan outlines nearly £5 billion of investment over the next four years and focuses on three key areas—ending children living in unsuitable accommodation, supporting the housing needs of vulnerable groups, and supporting growth and investment in the housing sector.

Since coming to office in 2007, the SNP in government has built 40 per cent more affordable homes per head of population than England over the same period, and 70 per cent more than Labour-run Wales. That is all against a backdrop of increased costs and challenges as a result of the financial crash, Brexit and the pandemic, as well as the severe limits that are placed on Scotland’s borrowing powers.

In my constituency, work has begun this year on 12 new social housing units in Leverburgh in Harris. That might not sound a big number but, to a small community where no social housing has been built for 50 years, it could represent the difference that means the local care home staying open, a business continuing to be able to operate or local health services being able to function. The local community council and housing association are to be commended for their efforts in bringing that project to fruition.

At the other end of the scale, I can think of the 74-home development at An Allt Dubh outside Stornoway, which was visited recently by the First Minister and is one of a number of larger projects under way to improve access to affordable housing in the islands.

It is important that we continue investing in affordable housing to ensure that it is available to all of Scotland’s communities. That flexibility ensures that the higher cost per unit of building in rural communities is not a barrier to progress. We must also continue helping community organisations and landowners to build affordable homes by using tailored support such as the rural and islands housing fund.

There remains much work to do to ensure that everyone in Scotland has a high-quality, long-term and affordable home, but the measures set out in the bill demonstrate the Scottish Government’s commitment to tackling the housing emergency. I commend the cabinet secretary for her on-going efforts in bringing the bill, and the accompanying housing action plan, to fruition.

Will the member take an intervention?