Introduction

This publication reports the number of assets in community ownership which are recorded by the Scottish Government. There are several initiatives which have been put in place to enable community ownership. 

There are several initiatives which have been put in place to enable community ownership. The Scottish Land Fund, as it is now known, was founded in 2001. It now supports both rural and urban communities to become more resilient and sustainable through the ownership and management of assets. Legislation concerning land reform commencing in 2004 (Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003) and 2016 (Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 and Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016) enhanced existing community right to buy.

The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 introduced new legislation giving communities the right to request to buy, lease, manage or use land and buildings belonging to local authorities, Scottish public bodies or Scottish Ministers. 

Due to increased focus on community ownership the Scottish Government asked the Scottish Land Commission to review existing community right to buy mechanisms and recommend how best to enable community ownership.

Following the recommendations of the Scottish Land Commission a National Indicator on community ownership was developed and included in the National Performance Framework in 2019, and which is usually informed by this publication series.

Regular reporting of the National Performance Framework Indicators has been paused while the parliamentary review of the National Outcomes is ongoing. Therefore, the National Indicator on community ownership will not be updated following the release of this publication

Please note that the statistics within this report which are for 2022 and earlier years have been revised taking into account updates which have been made to the underlying data. The statistics may therefore differ from those published in previous reports. No comparison should be made between the statistics presented in this report and the statistics from previously published reports.

An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland

These statistics are official statistics. Official statistics are statistics that are produced by crown bodies, those acting on behalf of crown bodies, or those specified in statutory orders, as defined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

More information about Scottish Government statistics is available on the Scottish Government website.