New Land Reform legislation will ensure “good leadership in land ownership becomes universal”.

That was a key message in an address to the Scottish Land & Estates conference by Net Zero Secretary Mairi McAllan.

She said: “The Scottish Government and the people of Scotland expect landowners to be good custodians of their properties and to engage with the local community on how that land is managed and used”.

Ms McAllan, who joined the Cabinet for the first time in First Minister Humza Yousaf’s reshuffle, said the Scottish Government wants the “legislation to further improve transparency of land ownership, to strengthen the contribution that large scale land holdings make to the public interest, and to empower our communities by providing more opportunities to own land and have more say in how land in their area is used”.

The consultation exercise for the next Land Reform Bill was published in December and received more than 500 responses, with analysis of the submissions due to be published “very soon”.

The Cabinet Secretary said: “Many inspirational stories are being showcased at this conference highlighting success and best practice across a wide range of topics such as working with communities, increasing rural housing provision and addressing the climate and nature emergencies. But we believe that we can go further.

“The 2016 Land Reform Act brought in our Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement. Although voluntary, it has been embraced by many landholders.

“The Statement reflects the Scottish Government’s aspirations for community empowerment, and land use and management in support of the government’s targets for net zero and biodiversity.

“The proposals in the new Bill would put the Statement on a statutory footing for large-scale landholders, to ensure that the best practice of many becomes universal.”

Ms McAllan said she welcomed the debate brought about by the introduction of a public interest test when ownership of large-scale landholdings is transferred, along with the requirement for prior notification of intention to sell.

The prior notification proposal would “seek to build on and complement, the existing community right to buy framework”, giving community bodies advance notice that landholder intends to sell land.

The proposals would only apply to a suggested land-holding threshold of more than 3,000 hectares.

“Scale brings risks of undue local concentration of power, and the Government has always been clear that with rights come responsibilities.

“Our land reform objectives for greater diversity of ownership are not incompatible with our net zero and environment ambitions.

“All landowners - public, private, community and charitable - are capable of working together at a landscape scale in order to realise net zero ambitions, irrespective of the scale of individual holdings.” She added.

Turning to the anticipated Agriculture Bill due to be published later this year, Ms McAllan said it will be brought forward as “a co-developed framework” which will “enable producers to deliver their essential role towards realising our shared ambitions as articulated through the Vision for Agriculture.”

She said the analysis of responses to the Agriculture Bill consultation would also be published “very shortly”.

Concluding, the Cabinet Secretary said the Scottish Government is developing a Remote, Rural and Islands Housing Action Plan and referred to the recently announced £25 million of funding to make best use of underused or empty properties by making them available for key workers and others in need.

She said: “The Government is committed to delivering on our target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70% will be available for social rent and 10% will be in our remote, rural and island communities.”