What if we had a community owned land-bank?

Land is a vital asset.  Any credible pathway to a liveable future requires that communities have access to the land and buildings that they need to enable and unleash the bottom-up action that is essential.

With access to land, communities can take a real lead in putting in place the infrastructure and facilities needed for everybody in their community to thrive within a flourishing environment. Land for community energy projects, for community-led housing, for community gardens, for food growing and other land-based enterprises. Buildings for community hubs and coworking spaces, for tool libraries and repair cafés, for setting up flexible, affordable workshop space to nurture new local enterprises serving local needs……. and much more. 

There are lots of examples of where communities have been transformed through taking on ownership of local land and other assets, particularly in more remote and rural areas. But, in most situations in most places across most of Scotland, the current support mechanisms for communities to take ownership of local land and buildings are simply not fit for purpose. 

One key and fundamental challenge is that, in many cases, opportunities for communities to acquire local land and buildings (that is buildings that are actually assets rather than liabilities) arise at short-notice and communities are simply not able to move quickly enough to take advantage of them. Frustration and wasted time and effort is too often the outcome because the current support and funding sources are slow, onerous and time consuming to access. In most cases, communities lack the agility to move quickly enough to even consider attempting to take ownership. 

What if we set up a land-bank, owned and run by the community sector, resourced with the expertise and funds to be able to move quickly to acquire suitable assets on behalf of local communities across Scotland, as and when such opportunities arise?

Such a community owned land-bank would act as an interim purchaser, securing assets that have clear potential for future community use. This would give local community bodies the breathing space they need in order to properly consult their community, to develop ideas into robust proposals and business plans and to secure the necessary funding to then purchase the asset out of the land-bank. Where appropriate, the community body could lease land/buildings back from the community land-bank until such time as they are able to put in place a funding package to take over ownership.

Many new opportunities for communities to acquire land and buildings would be opened up, making it much easier to put in place the basic infrastructure that every community is going to need. This could lead to a rapid increase in the level of ambition of communities in facing up to the climate and nature emergencies whilst building local resilience and community wealth. 

Has your community managed to take ownership of any land or buildings? Would you like to? Have you tried and failed? Do you have any expertise in acquiring or managing property? If you have any interest at all in a community land-bank or any other ideas for how to overcome the challenges that currently make it so difficult for community groups to take ownership of land and buildings then please complete this very short survey. 

Many thanks, I look forward to hearing from you!