A set of basic principles intended to encourage sustainable and community-sensitive land use and management was provided by The Scottish Government’s 2017 Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement. The Scottish Land Commission was tasked with providing more detailed guidance on implementing the Statement and the protocol "Land Ownership by Private Trusts" has been introduced as part of that programme.
Although not legally-binding its recommendations are intended to inform interactions between land-owning trusts. The protocol covers: transparency, community involvement and, to a degree, trust administration.
Local community bodies will likely look to rely on the protocol in their dealings with land-owning trusts. Consequently, trusts should be alert to the protocol’s expectations and consider if appropriate adjustments are required.
A number of principles are set out in the document, including recommendations that:
- Up-to-date details of trustees’ identities and a point of contact for queries in relation to each property should be publicly available, ideally online
- Consideration should be given to whether local trustees could be appointed, or locally-based representatives be involved in decision-making
- Local communities should be consulted in relation to changes in the use of property that will affect them, following the principles of the Commission’s Protocol on Community Engagement in Decisions Relating to Land
- Decisions about the management of the trust that could affect local communities should involve consultation with that community, again following the Commission’s Protocol on Community Engagement in Decisions Relating to Land
- Trustees’ strategic reviews should consider engagement with local communities
- Fair consideration should be given to local community requests to lease or purchase the property and if disposal is planned, consideration should be given to whether this can be sold to or leased by local interests.
The protocol recognises that a trust cannot undertake any activity that would be in contravention of its trust deed, and that trustees cannot do anything that would be in breach of their legal duties.
If you would like to discuss assistance with your review our experts in trust and property law will be happy to help.
