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Land reformist attacks Scottish aristocrats' claims

Lairds' lobby group produced 'research' claiming private estates boost Scotland's economy

Scotland's lairds cannot simply cite their own wealth as proof of their right to rule, a leading campaigner for land reform said yesterday.

Legal geographer Andy Wightman poured cold water on the aristocracy’s claims its Scottish Land and Estates (SLE) lobby group produced research insisting that private estates generate hundreds of millions of pounds for the Scottish economy each year.

Just over 500 families control around half of Scotland’s land mass — the result of the infamous Highland clearances in which eighteenth-century aristocrats seized crofters’ lands for sheep runs, evicting up to 2,000 families a day.

A survey of 277 of SLE members found that they accounted for more than three million acres of land across Scotland, 7,645 houses and 1,563 farming tenancies.

The report estimated the membership owned nearly two-thirds of private estates, employed 8,114 full-time workers and contributed £471m to the country’s economy through commercial forestry, agriculture and tourism.

But Mr Wightman told the Star: “The king of Bahrain might own all of Bahrain, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best economic model.”

SLE’s report follows concerted efforts by the aristocracy to sideline SNP plans to break up the toffs’ vast fiefdoms by forcing them to sell to tenant farmers under an “absolute” right to buy.

Scottish Land and Estates chair Luke Borwick said their study proved “the very substantial contribution made by estates.

“They are part of the fabric of rural Scotland and estate owners want to play their part in ensuring that rural Scotland is a thriving and vibrant place to live and work,” he said.

But Mr Wightman yesterday charged that the poll was “basically a speculative exercise.”

“You’ve got these people who say they’re going to invest and employ this many people … well, you would expect that. This land isn’t just sitting there doing nothing,” he said.

“But one of the key things the report has to acknowledge, but can’t, is the counterfactual. What would be the employment and economic output if this land wasn’t owned by this small number of people?”

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