Chapter 4: Land and the Community

This chapter addresses how land reform and transfers of land and related assets to the community in rural Scotland are impacting on levels and performances of enterprises in areas where these local communities have bought the land from former monopoly owners. It therefore explores a context where the economic, social, political and environmental drivers and infrastructures are markedly different from the rest of the UK (Burnett & Danson, 2021). In particular, a landscape is described and developments analysed across a countryside that contrasts with that in England especially, as presented by Murdoch et al. (2003), with rural economic development legacies, policies and strategies remaining markedly different (according to Winter et al., 2016) and often diverging from those under the legislative management of the UK Parliament. Further, the institutional framework and superstructure differ from elsewhere in the UK, although this is often not recognised in the literature; for instance, the Plunkett Foundation¹ claims to be ‘a national charity that supports rural communities across the UK to tackle the issues they face through community business’, yet all their staff and board are from England, and all but a few fellows are also from England (apart from several from Ireland, interestingly), with no mention or case studies offered of the significant community-owned rural estates in Scotland, which are explored in this chapter.