Author: Severin Carrell , Guardian

Crown Estate Scotland, the body that manages land and seabed once owned outright by British monarchs, could help buy large Highland estates and then sell them back to local communities.

Crown Estate Scotland has agreed to support a radical agenda being pushed through by Scottish ministers to increase community ownership of large estates, in an agreement struck with the Scottish Land Commission.

With Scottish country estate and farm prices soaring to record levels, it is thought the organisation’s wealth and expertise could help communities buy land they might otherwise have been unable to bid for.

Ministers in Edinburgh are also planning to push state-owned bodies that own large amounts of land, including forests, crofting estates and islands such as Rum, to sell off more of their estates to community groups.

Mairi Gougeon, the Scottish cabinet secretary for rural affairs, land reform and islands, said on Wednesday that the Scottish land fund, which finances community buyouts, would be getting an extra £1m a year to support buyout bids.

By 2026, the fund’s annual budget should increase to £20m, she confirmed. But land reform campaigners and the Scottish Land Commission believe much more money is needed to allow significant transfers of land and property to community ownership.

Crown Estate Scotland is one of the country’s largest and most powerful property owners, holding buildings and 35,000 hectares (86,500 acres) of land worth nearly £560m, as well as controlling the lucrative licensing of seabed for offshore windfarms.

Until 2017, its assets were part of the UK-wide Crown Estate, which passes its profits to the Treasury to help fund the royal family’s living costs and public duties through the sovereign grant. It is independent of the UK government, passing its profits to Scottish ministers.

In a major policy shift that distances Crown Estate Scotland from its historic role guarding the monarch’s properties on behalf of the state, it has offered to help finance the purchase of a major Highland or country estate to ensure it can then be acquired by local villagers or tenants.

Gougeon said she wanted Forestry and Land Scotland, the state-owned forestry agency, to share more of its land with local communities and for state-owned crofting estates to do likewise.

It is understood there are also discussions about whether Rum, the inner Hebridean island owned by the conservation agency NatureScot, could be bought by islanders.

Scotland’s private estate owners are frequently irritated by land reform campaigners criticising the power of Scottish lairds. They argue that the Scottish government is the country’s largest landowner yet appears to do little to share out its assets with local people.

Gougeon said the government had a responsibility to do more and to be ambitious, by encouraging state land owners to share their assets. “For me it’s about leading by example. I think that we want to see that diversity of land ownership in Scotland,” she said. “We have been on that journey [by] giving more power to communities.”

Hamish Trench, the chief executive of the Scottish Land Commission, said: “We see a strong leadership role for public land owners in enabling community ownership as well as developing new governance partnerships that increase community participation in decisions.

“We are pleased to be working with Crown Estate Scotland to pilot an approach in which they will acquire land with the deliberate intention of selling on to community ownership. This is intended to help address the challenge for communities acting in a fast-moving market and we hope to learn from this pilot to inform what others can do.”

A spokesperson for Crown Estate Scotland said the land acquisition proposal was at an early stage, so it was too early to say what size of assets it would buy.

“It can be difficult for community groups to fund buying assets. For example, sometimes they can’t raise the money required quickly enough,” he said. “This project is just getting underway and the type and scale of assets that may be involved is not yet clear.”

Author: Jack McConnell, The Herald

IT has been quite a start to the life of the new Scottish Cabinet, and there are big challenges ahead. All of us who fought so hard to secure devolution for Scotland will be hoping that one outcome of recent developments will be an open debate about transparency and central control in government in Scotland. That is certainly required in St Andrews House and in Holyrood, but I for one hope that debate will include ideas that might energise and empower local government in every corner of our land.

Thirty years ago this year, then Secretary of State for Scotland Ian Lang MP decided that the best way to reverse the growing tide of support for strong devolution in Scotland was to reform local government instead.

Previously, following the publication of the Wheatley Report, a two-tier system of local authorities had been created, with strategic responsibilities handed to nine regional councils and more local services and statutory duties located with the district councils, of which they were 53. The furthermost islands – Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles – were granted single tier status.

While the new system certainly tided up the mishmash that had existed before and clarified many responsibilities and accountabilities, debate had raged through the 1980s between the benefits of the two-tier system and single tier authorities.

The cities eyed single tier status as an opportunity to compete with more successful models of city management elsewhere in the world; many felt that the districts and regions failed to cooperate too often; some felt the regions were too remote while others felt the districts were too parochial.

After the disaster of the poll tax and controversial government interventions in housing and schools management, calls for an independent review of local government in Scotland were growing. Lang broke the deadlock and following a consultation on the geographical boundaries, created a new single tier system with 32 authorities ranging from the City of Glasgow to smaller Clackmannanshire, East Renfrewshire and Moray.

Of course, his local government reorganisation did not reverse the increasing public desire for Home Rule within the UK. His attempt to save a small number of Tory authorities by establishing Labour authorities with larger populations alongside smaller authorities that could have voted Tory failed. By 1996 there were no Tory-controlled councils in Scotland and after the General Election in 1997, no Tory MPs either.

Scotland voted conclusively for devolution with tax varying powers, and in 1999 the wide-ranging powers of the new Scottish Parliament included legislative responsibility for local government. But, 30 years on from the publication of the original White Paper, it is really quite astonishing that the original decisions of Ian Lang have survived.

Almost everyone in Scotland might have assumed that such a controversial and unpopular reorganisation would have been a target for Labour, the Liberal-Democrats, and the SNP following the devolution of power in 1999. Instead, the original 32 authorities, large and small, remain in place with largely the same powers, similar statutory duties and largely unreformed local taxes in the form of council tax and business rates.

The two most significant changes to have happened in local government over these 30 years, proportional representation for local government elections when I was First Minister and the council tax freeze under the SNP, have left the basic structure unchanged.

Meanwhile, local leaders have struggled to cope or find a strong voice. And in economic development, the management of policing and other areas of Scottish government responsibility, centralisation rather than decentralisation has been the order of the day for just over a decade.

The Accounts Commission recently said Scotland’s local authorities must radically change how they operate in order to maintain and improve the services they offer. They expressed concern over specific services like adult care, housing, cultural provision and environmental protection. They called for a new deal between the Scottish government and councils, and Ministers seem to have opened the door to that. But radical change cannot just be additional grant finance.

The 30-year-old system of local government finance is way out of date for modern society and the modern economy. 16 years ago my successors promised to ‘abolish the council tax’ but it is still there.

Elected Mayors have transformed the debate between England’s forgotten north and the Whitehall/Westminster bubble, but Scotland has resisted that change. Holyrood leaders talk often about centralising more services at the national level, but are we really convinced the Scottish government will always do a better job than local elected leaders in policing, economic development or further education? And, as for the structure of 32 councils, surely it is time to move on from a scheme dreamt up by the last Conservative government before devolution, that had little public support at the time.

Scotland’s non-partisan think tank Reform Scotland believes that devolving power, encouraging innovation, responsibility and local partnerships by empowering local leaders is the best way to drive towards excellence in public services, create economic growth around the whole country and enhance accountability. If we want better local leaders, maybe we need to give them more to lead.

We want to kick off a big democratic conversation and we want to hear from a wide range of voices across Scotland.

So Reform Scotland are launching an open series on their website, inviting those with fresh ideas to send them in. We specifically want to hear proposals for decentralisation.What would be your top priority for new local government powers? Which change would best rebalance economic and taxation powers? Are there structural changes that would strengthen local leadership?

The blog series will welcome contributions from every corner of our land and from every perspective. To paraphrase Edwin Morgan: Light of the day, shine in; light of the mind, shine out! Open the doors and begin.

Lord Jack McConnell is the Chair of Reform Scotland and was MSP for Motherwell & Wishaw 1999-2011 and First Minister of Scotland 2001-2007

Author: Susan Windram

A pilot project aimed at tackling marine litter along our coastline recently saw volunteers hard at work on Skye and the Small Isles.

In a massive operation, which is the first of its kind in Scotland, waste rope and nets were gathered from beaches by volunteers in Skye, Eigg, Muck, and Canna to be recycled into usable products, mainly pots created by Ocean Plastic Pots.

Funded by Marine Scotland, the Scottish Islands Federation’s marine litter officer and marine litter working group have been looking at ways to support island beach clean groups in their effort to deal with the huge amount of marine litter waste ending up on Scottish island beaches.

Their latest data collection supported by the Marine Conservation Society, showed that 98 per cent of the waste collected and analysed was made up of plastic, with 64 per cent (4.4 more times the average of mainland Scotland) of it coming from the marine industry – be it fishing or aquaculture.

Camille Dressler of the Scottish Island Federation (SIF) said: “Removing marine plastic from our islands environment is only part of the solution, however, the other issue being what to do with it, as sending it to landfill is not sustainable and will no longer be possible by 2026 in any case.

“So teeming up with recycling businesses, harbour authorities and organisations such as Caledonian Horticulture seemed the way to go in this innovative pilot project involving Mallaig Harbour, Skye and the Small Isles beach clean groups.

“The Scottish Islands Federation is delighted with the progress of the pilot, which we hope can be extended to many other harbours and beach clean groups throughout the Scottish islands.”

The work has involves the help from Mallaig Harbour Authority, CalMac (using the Spanish John) and a boat from the Scottish Coastal Clean-up project (supported by Caledonian Horticulture).

Jaqueline McDonell of Mallaig Harbour Authority said: “Mallaig Harbour Authority is  delighted to be able to support the Small Isles and Skye communities in their efforts to recycle marine litter. The issue of marine litter and the difficulties in collecting and recycling this impact on all our coastal communities, and it’s great to be able to play a small part in the solution along with some of these communities and Ocean Plastic Pots.

“The wider work being done by the Scottish Islands Federation, which included the recent marine litter event in Mallaig is so important in raising awareness of the issue of plastic pollution, and the impact on our seas. If each of us can play a small part in reducing the waste in our oceans then cumulatively we can have a big impact!”

The waste rope/nets were collected on Skye from April 21-23, and waste picked up from Eigg and Muck was collected from Mallaig on April 24 for recycling.

Kate Miller of Scottish Coastal Clean Up said: “After running several beach clean events on mainland Scotland, in April 2022 the Scottish Coastal Clean Up initiative gathered more than 75m3 of marine detritus on the Isle of Ulva over one weekend. They were only able to remove the marine plastic from the island with the help of local businesses Mull Charters and Turus Mara, and Bakkafrost, which sent its boats with a crew to help.

“Our time on Ulva highlighted one of the main issues faced by island beach cleaning communities – what to do with the litter once it has been gathered. After this experience we decided to change our focus slightly and now have our own boats that we can use to help support beach cleaning groups and facilitate the removal of gathered rubbish from the islands. We are also able to access areas inaccessible by land and target identified litter hotspots by working in partnership with local groups.

“This year our beach cleaning activities started on the Isle of Skye, where we worked with Skye Beach Cleans and the Scottish Marine Island Federation. We aim to remove marine litter already gathered in some of the more remote areas on the island, conduct our own cleans, and to check and document the state of some areas inaccessible by land to allow Skye Beach Cleans to build up a deeper understanding of the marine litter across the island.

“We will be in the Slate Isles and Mull in May, Eriskay in July, and around Lewis and Harris in August before returning to Ulva in September.

“If anyone would like to work with us during these events please contact kerrie@caledonianenvironmental.co.uk or visit www.scottishcoastalcleanup.co.uk for more information.”

SIF, in conjunction with Marine Conservation Society, has started a new monitoring programme of the plastics that get washed up on the beaches. If anyone would like to get involved or just help with the beach clean they can also email: marinelitter@scottish-islands-federation.co.uk  or call call 01989 566017.

Author: Arran COAST

Lamlash Bay shows how HPMAs should be done 

The recent consultation on Highly Protected Marine Areas has been causing a big stir in recent weeks. With misinformation, protest songs, twitter battles and political point-scoring, HPMAs have rapidly become the latest frontline in the battle over Scotland’s future.

Amidst this furore, however, and against the background of inspiring projects like Scotland: Ocean Nation and Wild Isles, there are opportunities to harness the recent attention placed on the ocean. A chance to take a step back and see the wider picture – the state of Scotland’s seas.

It’s easy to forget how our thriving seas used to look. Recent research shows that disturbance of Scotland’s seabed is widespread, fish landings are decreasing and marine ecosystems are suffering throughout Scotland’s seas, bringing the fishing industry, along with our hopes of addressing the climate and biodiversity crises, down with it.  

The Scottish Government has admitted that it is failing to meet its own targets to achieve healthy seas. Decades of failure to implement effective marine management and address the damage caused by unchecked scallop dredging and bottom-trawling has left Scotland with a damaged and impoverished marine environment. Without healthy seas we cannot have healthy coastal communities.  

The Highly Protected Marine Area (HPMA) project, part of the Bute House agreement between SNP and the Scottish Greens, recognises the degraded state of Scotland’s seas and the urgent need for action to recover marine ecosystem health. COAST recognises the need for action and that HPMAs could be a part of the solution. However, if pursued in isolation from joined-up spatial management and a genuine just transition, they risk upset and divided communities and a failure to address the real issues affecting the health of Scotland’s marine environment.  

But it doesn’t have to be this way. The 13-year campaign to designate the Lamlash Bay No Take Zone galvanised the Arran community and brought people together to demand better protection of the seas for the benefit of everyone. It united people with a passion for the underwater world and opened up the possibilities of what healthy seas can deliver for coastal communities, to benefit low-impact fisheries, tourism, art, businesses, cultural heritage and identity. Of the Arran locals surveyed in 2020, 97% of people who knew about the NTZ thought it had positive benefits.  

On the seabed itself, research has shown that this level of protection has led to a significant increase in the diversity and abundance of marine life. Habitats that provide nursery and feeding areas are protected, improving the opportunities for species to thrive and grow including commercially important fish and shellfish. 

This kind of recovery spills over into surrounding areas where extractive activities are permitted, so benefitting the industries that operate there. These areas store more carbon than degraded areas, reducing the speed of climate change and boosting our resilience to its impacts.  

The possible benefits gained by allowing these small pockets to recover from decades of exploitation are innumerable. Placed in the right locations, with an effective compliance strategy, ongoing monitoring plans and nested amongst other zoned spatial measures that don’t just displace damaging practices and spatial squeeze elsewhere, HPMAs will be transformative.  

But they cannot succeed without community support. This includes local fishers, together with recreational users, business owners, families and individuals. A recent poll showed that coastal communities are more concerned than the national average about the marine environment in Scotland. The status quo will not secure the thriving coastal environment and culture we want to leave for the next generation.  

The seas are a public asset and communities have a legitimate right to demand better management and have a say in how they will look in decades to come.  

Author: John Ross, Press and Journal

Alasdair Allan MP says he is concerned that residents of Great Bernera have been trying for a decade to mount a community buyout.

He now wants the Scottish Government to strengthen its Land Reform Bill due this year to help them.

Mr Allan was speaking at the biggest gathering of community landowners from across Scotland in Lewis and Harris from today.

He said the great Bernera community is frustrated at not being able to buy the land from its Germany-based owner.

The Great Bernera Community Development Trust (GBCDT) was formed in 2013 to help residents assess the benefit of ownership.

Two years later a vote showed 142 residents (85% of the population) were in favour of a buy-out.

After offers were rejected a fresh buyout bid was made in 2018. An application was then made in 2021 to force a sale.

The estate was owned by Count Robin de la Lanne-Mirrlees who died in 2012, leaving the island to his grandson, Cyran de la Lanne-Mirrlees.

Mr Allan said: “More needs to be done. The Scottish Government is committed to a Land Reform Bill during this Parliament.

“As well as hopefully enabling a wider and more equitable distribution of land, it needs to make it easier for groups to face-off against hostile landowners.

“It’s simply not right that, in 2023, the ambitions of a community like Bernera have been indefinitely vetoed by an absentee landlord.

“If we want the right to buy to be a proper right for crofting communities, it does now need more legal muscle behind it.”

But he said the Western Isles has gone from an area where land ownership was historically concentrated in the hands of a few to the centre of community land ownership in Scotland.

“While most of Scotland’s rural land is in private hands, more than 75% of people in the Western Isles today live on community-owned land.

“This has empowered many communities to take control of their own futures and ensure that the land and resources that sustain them are managed in a way that benefits the community as a whole.”

Cyran de la Lanne-Mirrlees recently told the BBC Eorpa programme he intended visiting the island soon. He said if a sale were to take place, discussions over the valuations would be done with official representatives of the community.

Land reform minister Mairi McAllan said the government is working with the GBCDT which recently received a compliance letter from Ministers.

This means the trust can submit an application under the Crofting Community Right to Buy and will be advised on the next steps.

“Communities know best what is needed in their own areas, and that is why they should have the power to decide the future of the land and buildings that matter to them.

Today’s meeting involves ten community groups stretching from the Northern Isles to Dumfries and Galloway.

Organised by Community Land Scotland and Community Land Outer Hebrides, topics under discussion include green income ideas, tourism, housing, woodland management, nature-based enterprises and peatland carbon markets.

The groups will visit the community owners of the 56,000-acre Galson Estate in the north of Lewis.

The Galson Estate Trust, won praise for protecting vulnerable residents during the pandemic and lockdowns.

It stepped up again when the cost of living crisis hit in past months and £80,000 was spent supporting residents.

Children’s activities and sports were subsidised, as were lunches and blankets for the elderly.

The money comes from three 900kW wind turbines owned by trust subsidiary and earn around £500,000 a year net.

Chair Agnes Rennie, a CLS board member, is still looking to learn from others.

“One of the really interesting things for us will be to see what we have done through the eyes of the visiting communities.

“It will give us a chance to learn from communities that are so very different, from the Borders to urban settlements to Orkney.

“We all exist to make the land or assets work for our local communities, not just for today, but for the future.

“Development opportunities don’t stand still. We have got to keep refreshing our thinking.”

Author: Jamie Mann, The Ferret

Edinburgh councillors have voted unanimously to give local communities more power to appeal planning decisions – a move campaigners argue would level the playing field between developers and residents.

The motion, put forward by independent councillor Ross McKenzie, was in response to an official complaint made by campaigners to a UN body tasked with upholding international environmental rights.

Campaigners claimed Scotland was in breach of the Aarhus Convention – an international law – because of the lack of planning appeal rights for members of the public, even if it impacts their health or environment.

Council leader Cammy Day will now raise appeal rights with the Scottish Government’s planning minister, Joe Fitzpatrick MSP, and ask him to implement them.

In September, the Environmental Rights Centre Scotland (ERCS), Planning Democracy, RSPB Scotland and Friends of the Earth Scotland, complained to the UN’s Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention (ACCC), which is investigating and has asked the Scottish Government to respond by 21 July.

Conversely, developers have a right to appeal council refusals, and can apply to have the government reconsider. In April, we revealed that the government overturned four in ten planning decisions that were rejected by local authorities last year.

Communities can only challenge such decisions in the Court of Session, which the council motion deemed “prohibitively expensive”. This puts developers in ”a privileged position” compared to communities, it added.

Clare Symonds, founder and chair of Planning Democracy, said councillors had “recognised the importance of a just and fair planning system” and called on the government to follow suit.

“If the Scottish Government profess that equality, inclusion and human rights are at the centre of everything they do, they can no longer ignore this blatant inequality,” she added

Angus Hardie, the director of Scottish Community Alliance, branded the current rules “an affront to natural justice”. “It is high time that communities were able to engage in the planning system without both hands tied behind their backs,” he argued. “All they ask for is a level playing field – why is the Scottish Government denying them that?”

Shivali Fifield, chief officer at ERCS, said: “Despite all the new measures introduced by the Scottish Government which are intended to front-load community engagement in the planning process, and regardless of how vigilant we in the community council try to be in monitoring applications as they affect our area, we feel completely disempowered by the planning system.

“To have a right of appeal that is on a par with the developers would be a major step forward for community empowerment and local democracy more generally”.

Council leader Cammy Day said he was “pleased” that the council backed the motion unanimously, and confirmed he would be asking the government for a review of the rights of appeal.

Edinburgh councillors have voted unanimously to give local communities more power to appeal planning decisions – a move campaigners argue would level the playing field between developers and residents.

The motion, put forward by independent councillor Ross McKenzie, was in response to an official complaint made by campaigners to a UN body tasked with upholding international environmental rights.

Campaigners claimed Scotland was in breach of the Aarhus Convention – an international law – because of the lack of planning appeal rights for members of the public, even if it impacts their health or environment

Council leader Cammy Day will now raise appeal rights with the Scottish Government’s planning minister, Joe Fitzpatrick MSP, and ask him to implement them.

In September, the Environmental Rights Centre Scotland (ERCS), Planning Democracy, RSPB Scotland and Friends of the Earth Scotland, complained to the UN’s Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention (ACCC), which is investigating and has asked the Scottish Government to respond by 21 July.

Conversely, developers have a right to appeal council refusals, and can apply to have the government reconsider. In April, we revealed that the government overturned four in ten planning decisions that were rejected by local authorities last year.

Communities can only challenge such decisions in the Court of Session, which the council motion deemed “prohibitively expensive”. This puts developers in ”a privileged position” compared to communities, it added

Clare Symonds, founder and chair of Planning Democracy, said councillors had “recognised the importance of a just and fair planning system” and called on the government to follow suit

“If the Scottish Government profess that equality, inclusion and human rights are at the centre of everything they do, they can no longer ignore this blatant inequality,” she added

Angus Hardie, the director of Scottish Community Alliance, branded the current rules “an affront to natural justice”. “It is high time that communities were able to engage in the planning system without both hands tied behind their backs,” he argued. “All they ask for is a level playing field – why is the Scottish Government denying them that?”

Shivali Fifield, chief officer at ERCS, said: “Despite all the new measures introduced by the Scottish Government which are intended to front-load community engagement in the planning process, and regardless of how vigilant we in the community council try to be in monitoring applications as they affect our area, we feel completely disempowered by the planning system.

“To have a right of appeal that is on a par with the developers would be a major step forward for community empowerment and local democracy more generally”.

Council leader Cammy Day said he was “pleased” that the council backed the motion unanimously, and confirmed he would be asking the government for a review of the rights of appeal.

“As per an amendment from the Labour group I will also be requesting that consideration be given to extending the current time periods for the determination of applications, specifically in circumstances where applications have been continued for a hearing by council committees,” he added.

The government last month told The Ferret that Scotland’s new planning act “is increasing opportunities for local people to have a say and influence development in their areas.

“That includes a new right introduced last year for communities to prepare their own local place plans, which will enable them to influence local planning authorities’ development plans.”

“As per an amendment from the Labour group I will also be requesting that consideration be given to extending the current time periods for the determination of applications, specifically in circumstances where applications have been continued for a hearing by council committees,” he added.

The government last month told The Ferret that Scotland’s new planning act “is increasing opportunities for local people to have a say and influence development in their areas.

“That includes a new right introduced last year for communities to prepare their own local place plans, which will enable them to influence local planning authorities’ development plans.”

Author: Future Economy Scotland

Today Scotland stands at a crossroads, confronted with a series of stark, intertwined challenges. From the legacy of the Global Financial Crisis and austerity, to the Covid-19 pandemic and the deep fault lines it exposed. From soaring energy prices and the cost of living crisis, to escalating climate and environmental breakdown. How Scotland responds to these challenges depends on the decisions we make – both now and in the future.

The establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 empowered Scotland to forge a distinct policy path. Despite areas of progress, rates of inequality and poverty remain unacceptably high; there is an acute urban and rural housing crisis; and the economy remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels. As the Climate Change Committee has highlighted, Scotland has set a bold aim to reach net zero by 2045, but a clear delivery plan on how key milestones will be achieved “is still missing.” At this critical juncture, it is vital to acknowledge both the scale of the challenges we face, and the nature of the solutions required. 

Today we are proud to launch Future Economy Scotland. We are a non-partisan think tank that aims to create a new economy that is democratic, sustainable and just. We believe that Scotland cannot overcome these challenges by making minor tweaks to the status quo, or by simply ameliorating the worst excesses of a broken model. Instead, we must embrace bold new ideas to transform the economy. 

But what should this new economy look like? Our mission is to develop transformative policies that promote three key goals:

First, decarbonise the economy. We need to rapidly transition to a net zero economy, but how we do so matters. The scars of deindustrialisation – still visible decades on – shows that we can’t afford to repeat mistakes of the past. Our work will aim to rapidly decarbonise Scotland’s economy in a way that heals inequalities, delivers well paid, green jobs and secures a sustainable future for communities. Not only is this necessary for the planet, it’s also popular. 

Second, democratise the economy. While the creation of the Scottish Parliament brought political power closer to the people, economic power remains concentrated in the hands of the few that own and control our most important assets. Our work will seek to democratise the economy by giving people and local communities a greater stake and a say over the assets and decisions affecting their lives. 

Third, decommodify the economy. Eradicating poverty and insecurity means ensuring that everyone’s basic needs are met. But the erosion of public services and the rise of extractive business models have left many without basic security and dignity. Our work will aim to protect and expand Scotland’s public services, while replacing extractive business models with more democratic forms of ownership and governance. 

Future Economy Scotland will promote these goals by developing bold yet credible policies that harness the powers of the Scottish Parliament to the fullest possible extent. We will work with allies inside parliament and across civil society to build support for transformative change. We will also publish regular analysis and commentary to scrutinise government decisions and hold policymakers to account. 

Our vision for Scotland’s economy is ambitious, but we cannot achieve it alone. Across Scotland, many people are already working to build a fairer, more democratic and more sustainable future, from trade unions and climate campaigners, to community groups and development trusts. We want to build alliances with allies across Scotland to share knowledge, exchange ideas, strengthen the evidence-base for transformative change, and ensure our work is useful to the wider movement. 

If we are to build a fairer Scotland, we must recognise the deep-rooted structural inequalities that exist, and the mechanisms through which they are reinforced. Embedded in all our work will therefore be a recognition of how structural oppression compounds  inequalities – including those relating to race, gender and class. We will seek to challenge structural oppression both in terms of the work we publish, and the way we operate as an organisation internally. 

Going forward, we hope that Future Economy Scotland can strengthen the movement working to build a fairer, more democratic and more sustainable economy. Sign up to our monthly newsletter to stay up to date with the latest developments, watch our launch video below.

FAQs

Who funds you? 

Unlike some think tanks, we are committed to being fully transparent about our funding. We receive grant funding from a range of philanthropic foundations that are committed to the advancement of social and environmental justice. A full list of our funders can be found on the ‘About us’ page. 

Do you have an organisational stance on Scotland’s constitutional future?

Future Economy Scotland does not have a formal stance on Scotland’s constitutional future. While we recognise the importance of this debate in national dialogue, we will not actively campaign for or against any particular constitutional arrangement. Instead, our work will focus on harnessing the powers of the Scottish Parliament to the fullest possible extent, recognising that the powers the Scottish Parliament has may change over time. 

Are you aligned with any political party?

Future Economy Scotland is a non-partisan think tank. We are not aligned to any political party or any politician. However, we seek to work constructively with all political parties and elected representatives that are interested in our work. 

What is your organisation’s legal status and governance?

We are a non-profit company limited by guarantee operating with charitable principles. We are governed by a small board of non-executive directors, and are committed to upholding the highest standards of organisational governance. 

Author: George Monbiot, The Guardian

One of the world’s greatest environmental heroes doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. Though he has done more to protect the living planet than almost anyone alive, his name is scarcely known. It’s partly because he’s quiet and self-effacing and partly because of a general ignorance about Central America that so few of us have heard of Alvaro Umaña.

This might be about to change. He stars in a fascinating film, now released in the Netherlands and negotiating global sales, called Paved Paradise (disclosure: I was also interviewed). It’s the first feature-length documentary I’ve watched that engages intelligently with the most critical environmental issue: land use. By contrast with popular but misguided films such as Kiss the Ground or The Biggest Little Farm, it recognises that sprawling extractive land uses are a lethal threat to the living world. It makes the case that, unless we count the hectares and decide together how best they should be used, we will lose the struggle to defend the habitable planet.

Paved Paradise tells the story of the most remarkable ecological turnaround on Earth: the transformation of Costa Rica. From 1986 to 1990, Umaña was environment minister in Óscar Arias’s government. Arias received the Nobel peace prize for his regional diplomacy. But the equally astonishing environmental shift Umaña catalysed is less well known.

Until the Arias government took power, Costa Rica suffered one of the world’s worst deforestation rates: on one scientific assessment, its forest cover fell to just 24.4% of the country.

Today, forests occupy 57%, which, Umaña tells me, is close to the maximum: some parts were never forested, while others are now occupied by productive farms and cities. While a small amount of illegal timber felling continues, Costa Rica is the only tropical country to have more or less stopped and then reversed deforestation. It now has one of the world’s highest percentages of protected areas. How did it happen?

Umaña persuaded Arias to let him run a new department (energy and environment) with responsibility for protected areas. He saw that the key task was to change financial incentives. Though cattle ranching was unproductive, as the land could support just one cow per hectare, it was marginally more lucrative than allowing the forest to stand.

His department calculated the opportunity cost of forgoing a cow at $64 a year, so this was the money it offered for protecting or restoring a hectare of forest. He began by reaching out to small farmers and their representatives, in those regions where people were most sympathetic to the idea. The smallest landholders were offered grants, slightly larger ones were offered soft loans, with the promise that if their forest was still standing after five years, it could serve as the loan’s guarantee. The plan was astonishingly successful: 97% of those who received loans protected or restored the trees on their land. As landholders everywhere saw the scheme made financial sense, it became massively oversubscribed.

Needing more money, in 1988 Umaña agreed a debt-for-nature swap with the Dutch government. It would cancel part of the foreign debt if the money Costa Rica would otherwise have spent on servicing it were used instead for forest conservation.

Following a change of government, Umaña became the country’s climate ambassador. He helped introduce a special tax of 3.5% on fossil fuels to help pay for forest conservation.

Soon the tree protectors began to supplement their income. Tourists are now the country’s second-biggest source of revenue: government figures show that 65% of them list ecotourism as a principal reason for visiting. They come to see toucans, green macaws, howler monkeys, jaguars, caimans, poison dart frogs and other resurgent natural wonders. Landholders can also apply for a licence selectively to fell a small number of their trees, some of which are very valuable.

One reason for the programme’s success is its sharing of financial benefits, especially through its world-leading gender action plan. Another is cultural change. In building a new identity around “la pura vida” (the simple life), the government showed that, in combination with economic incentives, national pride can help bring long-established practices such as forest clearance for cattle ranching to an end.

Costa Rica helped to inspire the Bonn Challenge, a global programme to restore degraded and deforested land. It launched the international plan to protect 30% of the planet by 2030, and was one of the two founder members, in 2021, of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (though it has since stood back, following a change of government). These are astonishing achievements for a tiny country.

Compare this record with policy in the UK, which, 37 years after Umaña set to work, is still pissing about with half-solutions and non-solutions, held to ransom by rich and powerful property owners and entirely incapable of making strategic environmental decisions, especially on land use. While Costa Rica’s wildlife is booming, ours is in freefall. The government seems determined, against all advice, to allow this disastrous trend to continue for the rest of the decade.

As for the fuel taxes that could have been used, like Costa Rica’s, to fund ecological repair, the UK government has now forgone a cumulative £80bn in revenue by both abandoning Labour’s fuel duty escalator and giving motorists a special rebate. As a result, our carbon emissions are up to 7% higher than they would otherwise have been.

So why does a rich, powerful nation fail, while a small, much poorer one succeeds? Talking to Umaña and researching the history of this transformation suggests a simple answer: quality of government. When governments are committed, decisive and consistent, things happen. When they are beholden to lobby groups, cronyism and corruption, and delegate responsibility to an abstraction called “the market”, they spend decades flapping their hands while chaos reigns.

Our self-hating state, which parades its can’t-do culture as a source of pride, insisting that government cannot and should not solve our problems, is constitutionally destined to founder. Why can’t we follow Costa Rica’s example? Because a small but powerful contingent insists on failure.

Author: Edinburgh Live

West Lothian village strives to honour role in Co-op Movement with museum

West Calder was a pioneer in the Scottish Co-operative Movement. Now plans for a community workspace will echo that community spirit.

Plans have been launched to transform an iconic village building into a heritage attraction and museum.

A trust has been working with villagers to create working community space, which echoes, and honours West Calder’s role in the founding of the Scottish Co-operative Movement.

The West Calder and Harburn Community Development Trust (WCHCDT) has been striving to find a sustainable future for the property in the village of West Calder – The Old Co-op Bakery or Workspace – for many years

The Scottish Co-operative Discovery Centre will be a heritage attraction and museum focused on the Co-operative movement locally and across Scotland. It will be a fun, hands-on and family-friendly place to learn, meet and share.

The Trust led project aims to transform the derelict building to be a hub for local economic development, local community cohesion, resilience, celebration, place making and community wealth building.

Matt Pearce, manager, West Calder and Harburn Community Development Trust told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “The discovery centre aims to celebrate our local and national heritage, create opportunities for local people and above all to inspire people toward collective solutions for the mutual challenges we face in the world today, like inequality and the climate crisis.

“The Co-op has been a central part of West Calder and West Lothian life for 150 years. It is entwined with our everyday lives – then and now – and it has so much to teach us. We wanted to celebrate that heritage locally, but we also wondered why there wasn’t a centre to celebrate it nationally and we didn’t see why such a centre couldn’t be in West Lothian.”

Matt added: “The completed centre will be home to spaces for community, training and well-being services, creating 22 new jobs and 150 annual training opportunities targeted at the most disadvantaged in our communities.”

Gavin Henderson, Chair of West Calder and Harburn Community Development Trust said: “This project has been designed and developed by the local community. It is rooted in our local heritage and that’s a heritage that has echoes across Scotland. The project will meet a wide range of local aims and objectives.

“This is a big project for a local organisation, and we are proud of how far we have come, yet we know there are many challenges ahead of us. Funding from The National Lottery Heritage Trust has been critical to the project’s development to date and the support from them and Historic Environment Scotland will be key to delivering this vision. We thank them both and we hope the people of West Lothian will support us in this as well.”

A recent £1.4 million funding boost from the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF) towards the estimated £4.5 million capital build cost brings the total pledged by funders to nearly £3.5 million.

The RCGF funding application to The Scottish Government was backed by West Lothian Council who have been supporting the project.

Executive councillor for economy, community empowerment and wealth building at West Lothian Council, Kirsteen Sullivan said: “The Scottish Co-operative Discovery & Activity Centre will be a huge asset for West Lothian and Scotland as a whole.

“This funding is an important step forward towards the delivery of the centre, which will create a real focal point for training, economic regeneration and the local community.

“I look forward to seeing the iconic Co-op bakery building brought back into active use, for the benefit of the local community once more.”

The Trust is keen to know your thoughts on creating a new attraction like this and invites you to complete the following short online survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/scottishcooperativediscoverycentre6

Author: SCVO

We are village halls, sports clubs, youth clubs, cafes and shops
We are organisations working in housing, health, social care and transport
We are advice services, campaigns to bring about change and so much more…

Our work changes people’s lives for the better, brings communities together, improves policy and contributes to the economy. What we do, and the benefits we bring, are constantly at risk if we do not have the support and funding we need to thrive and survive. So, we’re starting a new campaign called #EssentialSector and we want you to get involved.

Let’s make some noise to remind everyone how #Essential our work is so it can be protected and nurtured.

Get involved

Applications are open NOW to become one of eight organisations showcased during the launch of the #EssentialSector campaign later this year.

The campaign launch will feature short video clips of real people, telling their stories in their own words to paint an inspiring and raw picture of the value and impact of our sector – to show the challenges the sector faces as well as its many achievements.

In addition to heart-warming and informative stories, we are on the hunt for surprising and hard-hitting stories from every corner of Scotland, and from all different shapes and sizes of organisation, to help show the diversity and impact of the sector.

Shortlisted organisations will:

• Receive training on how to do simple filming using a mobile phone or tablet
• Be supported to plan out the best way to tell their organisations’ story on film
• Take their own short films of key people involved with their organisation/activities
• Own the content they help to create
• Have their content featured in the launch of #EssentialSector

We will:

• Organise the training
• Provide support with story-planning for filming
• Organise support check-ins during filming
• Set up channels for peer support amongst the organisations involved
• Edit the film content into short films to support the #EssentialSector launch

You’ll need a few things for the training including a laptop if you’re joining by video, a smart phone or tablet for filming, an app called Adobe Premier Rush, headphones, a USB cable, a tripod and mic (if you have them).

Don’t worry if you don’t have equipment! We’ll help as best we can with that.

We want to co-create videos with you, so your organisation gets to learn new skills as well as showcase its work. And we want you to own your video content so that you can use it to keep promoting your work beyond the #EssentialSector campaign.

All your stories are important. It will be hard to choose, but we aim to select a shortlist that shows as diverse a range of the sector as possible – different types and sizes of organisation, in different locations, doing different things and with different stories to tell.

While only eight organisations will be selected to make videos for the campaign launch, every story matters. We will send a campaign toolkit to everyone who applies with support and ideas for sharing your story as part of the campaign.

Applications will close at 12pm on 5 May 2023

Apply to be part of the #EssentialSector campaign

Key dates for your diary