Community Engagement Obligations and draft large land holdings guidance under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025

Research has found that around 1100 landholdings are expected to need to comply with the community engagement obligations, and therefore require a LMP. This may not mean that there are 1100 LMPs as some landowners may choose to have one LMP to cover multiple landholdings. However there would be a significant number of LMPs needing to be produced within a grace period.

One option would be for all landholdings to become subject to enforcement at the same time.

Another option would be to phase implementation, so that different groups of landholding become subject to enforcement at different times. This could be done on the basis of size (for example, measures coming into force for larger land holdings (e.g. over 3000 hectares) first) or based on another criteria such as geographical basis (for example, by local authority).  

A phased approach could help spread the following activities over a longer period:

• preparation of LMPs
• community engagement activities
• demand for advice and support to the Land and Communities Commissioner
• subsequent review of LMPs

This could reduce pressure on landowners, communities, the Scottish Land Commission and other organisations supporting implementation. However, it would mean that some communities would wait longer before the duties applied fully.