Another interesting story..
Land-reform measure shocks Scotland's rich
By Lizette Alvarez
The New York Times
DORNACH, Scotland — Swaddled in the solitude of the
Scottish Highlands, Skibo Castle, once the home of the
steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie and now a storybook resort
for the privileged, is a place infused with an aura of
tranquillity and comfort.
The rich and famous travel here to the northern reaches of Scotland to golf, ride, roam about the
grounds and attend candlelight dinners.
Madonna married Guy Ritchie at the castle two years ago, in full Scottish regalia. Members of
Skibo's members-only Carnegie Club enjoy a "unique and private refuge from the hectic world," its
Web site boasts.
But the Scottish Parliament has overwhelmingly passed a land-reform bill that fundamentally
changes property rights in Scotland and could greatly expand the public's access even to private
estates like Skibo Castle.
The new law would give crofters — small-scale tenant farmers who have lived in the Highlands for
generations — the right to collectively purchase sections of the estates they live on, whether or not
the landowner wants to sell.
The law also allows anyone in Scotland the right to roam just about anywhere, granting landowners
only limited power to eject someone from their property.
The provisions, expected to be signed into law by Queen Elizabeth II later this year, have set off a
fury among Scotland's estate owners, who have labeled it a brand of Marxism and likened it to the
seizures of white-owned land by President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
"The only countries in the world left with this kind of thing are North Korea and Cuba," said Peter de
Savary, a flamboyant entrepreneur who turned Skibo Castle from a private home into the Carnegie
Club in 1995. "The Scottish legislation is ill-conceived, has not been thought out and is particularly
inane. There is nothing to commend it at all."
Landowners fear their land will be sold out from under them, and members of sporting and leisure
clubs worry about losing privacy. They also argue that the bill may ultimately hurt local economies by
cutting into tourism.
Supporters of the bill, which passed by a vote of 101-19, shrug off the criticism, saying change was
overdue in Scotland, where half of private land is in the hands of just 343 landowners and only half
of Scotland's land has gone on the market in the past century.
"The reason we are doing this now is because we haven't done it in 200 years," said Andy
Wightman, author of "Who Owns Scotland."
De Savary said he was most distressed over the "right-to-roam" section of the bill, which would make
it next to impossible to bar someone from his land.
Other landowners, most of whom vigorously lobbied against the bill, are particularly aghast over the
provision that gives crofting communities the right to buy an estate's common grazing grounds,
including its fishing rights, regardless of the landowner's desire to sell.
If most crofters in a community decide they want to buy, the property's value is determined by an
independent assessor and may be bought using lottery money that goes into a government fund.
Several landowners, through the Scottish Landowners' Federation, hope to challenge the law
before the European Court of Human Rights. They say the bill is scaring off potential investors, who
would not want to risk money on estates that could be bought out from under them.
"It's a revenge job for something carried out 150 years ago and more," said John Mackenzie, whose
family has owned 50,000 acres on the Isle of Skye for more than 500 years.
To many people, though, the bill is viewed as a belated effort to address a deep imbalance in
property ownership in Scotland and a chance to remedy the wrongs committed by powerful
landowners 200 years ago, during the Highland Clearances.
At the time, crofters were pushed off the land and their huts were burned to enlarge estate holdings
and, often, to make way for sheep. Many left for the United States, Canada and Australia. Many of
the crofters living in Scotland today can trace their lineages back to those who were pushed onto
the margins of the big estates.
In the Highlands, where the bill most resonates, fewer than 100 landowners — aristocrats,
celebrities, foreign investors, sheiks and offshore companies — own more than half the land. Some
are absentee landlords. Others, though, run the estates at a loss and invest millions to maintain the
grounds, run lodges and keep rivers pristine, all of which helps local economies.
Many lawmakers and crofters argue that landowners are panicking unnecessarily. The most
contentious provision in the bill — the crofting communities' right to buy — affects only 7 percent of
all Scottish land, and many crofters have no intention of taking advantage of the offer. Those who
do want to buy must surmount a number of hurdles, including holding a local referendum and
withstanding a legal appeal.
"In one sense, it is revolutionary," said Jim Wallace, deputy first minister of the Scottish Parliament
who helped steer the bill through the legislature. "It's a simpler way of giving crofting communities
the right to buy land. But the heavens aren't going to fall in."
In some cases, the buying and selling of land will be done amicably, as is happening with the
Dundonnell Estate of the lyricist Tim Rice ("Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita"), who is negotiating
the sale of part of his 33,000 acres of Wester Ross land to a group of crofters.
Several other crofting communities, though, are moving ahead with plans to confront their landlords
and assert their right to buy.
Hugh MacLellan, 42, a crofter who has occupied the same land his family was squeezed into some
200 years ago, is setting plans in motion to purchase 2,300 acres of the Durness Estate, which is
owned by Vibal SE, a corporation licensed in Liechtenstein.
MacLellan, an oyster farmer and owner of a bed and breakfast, hopes to revitalize the village of
Laid, which he says has languished through neglect.
The owners, he said, want to hold on to the property for its mineral rights. He hopes to buy it and
turn parts into a heritage trail, maybe set up a shellfish-processing plant or a wind farm to produce
electricity.
"As far as I know, the owners have never been here," he said. |
