We will be blogging about key issues affecting both urban and rural land in Scotland today and topical debates surrounding land reform.
There will be regular features by the Scottish Land Commissioners, the Tenant Farming Commissioner, staff and guest bloggers from partner organisations and those with an interest in land reform.
Scottish Land Commission Blog 
The increasing value of land is a major limitation upon economic development in Scotland. Since the value of the land is increasing mainly due to the pressures initiated by society then society should benefit from the increase in land value. Yet the owners of the land are the ones to benefit by retaining the benefits of the increase without having to pay any part to society. Large areas of land especially in urban areas are under-utilised as there is no incentive for landowners to do anything except wait until the value rises and then sell the land at a good profit.
A major problem is the Land Act that was changed so that the land is no longer sold at its actual value and this amendment should be removed. Enabling land to be purchased at its current use value would do much to alleviate the increasing price of social housing that need to be built to house our expanding need for homes.
The land owners used to pay Ground Rent but now they keep the profits and public services are now raised from regressive taxes on labour and wages.
A study carried out in 2016 applying a 5 per cent Ground Rent in place of Council Tax and non-domestic rates concluded that applying Ground Rent (AGR) could lower expenditure on over 70 per cent of households and businesses whilst raising it for the more affluent section of our society.
Further, land cannot be put into a tax haven thus there would be more payees and less tax-evasion.
Robert Ingram, C.Eng.
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