The Scottish government have asked the Registers of Scotland to prepare to complete Scotland’s land register within 10 years and have committed to registering all public land within five years.
Currently just 26% of the land mass of Scotland is currently on the Land Register and the decision follows the recent publication of an important report from the Land Reform Review Group.
The Review Group report described the limited progress to date in the coverage of Scotland’s Land Register as a major issue. Given the economic and wider public benefits this will deliver, the Group recommends that the Scottish government should be doing more to increase the rate of registrations to complete the Land Register, including a government target date for completion of the Register, a planned programme to register public lands and additional triggers to induce the first registration of other lands.
‘We are committed to addressing land reform that will help build a flourishing modern Scotland,’ said Environment and Climate Change Minister Paul Wheelhouse.
‘The Land Reform Review Group made many recommendations which we will consider carefully and we are already acting in many of the these areas. One of their key recommendations was on land registration and I agree with the Group that a fundamental step on this journey must be having a clear understanding of who owns our land in Scotland,’ he explained.
‘I have asked Registers of Scotland to prepare to complete land registration within 10 years, with all public land registered within five years. There will be a lot of detail to go through, but we look forward to working with stakeholders to make this possible,’ he said.
‘This will benefit everyone as land transactions are more difficult and expensive if it’s not already on the land register. This is a vital underpinning step in Scotland’s land reform journey and will ensure that at last everyone will know who owns Scotland,’ he added.
Sheenagh Adams, Keeper of the Registers of Scotland, said there will be a consultation on all aspects of completing the register. ‘The Land Registration etc. (Scotland) Act 2012, which will fully come into force later this year, gives us the powers to achieve this. We look forward to working closely with property owners across Scotland to ensure Scotland’s citizens and institutions reap the social and economic benefits that flow from a publicly guaranteed system of rights in land and property,’ she added.
The Scottish Law Commission have identified the Land Register as part of the ‘national infrastructure’ as it affects every square inch of the country and the whole of Scotland’s economic life.
