Scottish Land Commission’s Post

Insights below from my urban community landownership research for Community Land Scotland via the Scottish Land Commission I've shared some further conceptual and academic reflections at SRUC Rural Policy Centre's Rural Exchange https://bit.ly/3TvlNRU The Rural Exchange blog explores the similarities and differences in community buyouts across urban and rural Scotland. It raises questions about how we understand, and make policy for, urban and rural land reform, and calls for land reform policy that better accounts for place and space. For example, one finding from the urban project was that funding structures lack flexibility needed to support community-led approaches to vacant and derelict land. Do we have the right balance between rural areas and new areas with different contexts and with different needs? How can rural community solutions be effectively championed nationally, but also evolve to be used in other places? E.g. the expansion in the areas and population that can access support, with no similar increase in the amount of support available (rather, Scottish Land Fund was recently cut). How do we create workable national policy for different contexts, such as a rural island and a city housing estate? This issue led to no urban criteria being including in the draft Land Reform Bill, as the proposed criteria at consultation stage in (datazones) proved untenable. We should be cautious about using rural/urban binaries, which are unhelpfully simplistic but endure. We can better account for place nuance, such as in the NISRIE analytic framework on the geographic rural/urban classification. "Rural" is diverse in itself -- as is "urban". There is also much to be gained by considering shared dynamics across places, as a continuum from sparsely populated rural areas to city centres. Extraction of land value occurs on a rural estate and in a vacant city building. It's clear that land reform policy could do with more transparent thinking about spaces, and how policy is used in places as well.

Interesting thoughts from Carey on the importance of supporting urban land reform including community re-use of vacant and derelict land and the dangers of over simplifying complex places by using urban and rural as catch all terms.

From smoother commutes to safer pedestrian pathways, infrastructure upgrades not only enhance daily lives but also boost property values and foster economic growth. 🏗️🛣️💼 Together, our vision for building a brighter, more connected community can come to life. 🌿✨ Check out the latest blog! https://lnkd.in/egyYubPk

#ResilienceWork takes centre stage, transcending sectors, cities, and continents. Fascinating to delve into the diverse approaches this all-encompassing concept receives across the globe. #resiliencebuilding #networking #FromTheorytoPractice

Park creation can take decades of perseverance to overcome financial, regulatory, and social hurdles, but the end result for the local community is more than worth it. #urbanplanning #landscapearchitecture

Park creation can take decades of perseverance to overcome financial, regulatory, and social hurdles, but the end result for the local community is more than worth it. #urbanplanning #landscapearchitecture

At a local level access to nature and green spaces has been developing over many years in piecemeal fashion. From Parish Paths Partnerships and Millenium Greens(yes I’m that old!). We need to shift to a more baked in approach so that this is a “given” and a “must have” in all developments, and in every community- not a “nice to have”. And it needs to be sustained long after the money has run out. There is much more that existing local community groups can do to help deliver so some of the funding needs to engage with them too. Above all we need a bigger slice of funding for basic overhead costs to support that sustainable longer term delivery like a ‘local community wealth fund’ not just one off project costs.

🎙️ Tune into the latest #GSADoesThat!? episode to explore the GSA's #GoodNeighborProgram, which aims to enhance federal spaces & foster community collaboration while supporting environmental sustainability, urban planning, & the power of partnerships. https://ow.ly/hUc850RooAK

It likely comes as no surprise that when an organization, whose sole focus is on bettering the ecosystem we live in, would require an application that allows them to focus on just this. Come see how we designed a sleek application which allows the team at Forests Ontario to distribute trees to local communities. https://bit.ly/3tX1ItD

Its Day 3 of the Co Habitat Network 10th Anniversary Conference in Geneva and Anja Lazar from our Central and Eastern Europe partner Zadrugator/ MOBA Housing SCE explains that despite governments, in particular Slovenia, insisting people want to own their own home, their research shows that what is really important to people is affordability, safe and habitable housing and security of tenure as opposed to the type of tenure. Find out more about Cooperative Housing in Central and Eastern Europe ▶ https://bit.ly/CLHMOBA