COMMUNITY RIGHT TO BUY CONSULTATION

The Scottish Government has published a consultation on the community right to buy, which it says “remains a key tool in our aim to increase community ownership over the years”.

The consultation looks at the four existing community rights to buy, namely:

• The “pre-emptive” community right to buy, which allows communities to apply to register an interest in land and to be given a right of first refusal should the landowner decide to put the land up for sale.
  
• The crofting community right to buy, which gives crofting communities the right to acquire and control the croft land where they live and work and to acquire the interest of the tenant in tenanted land.
  
• The community right to buy abandoned, neglected or detrimental land, which gives community bodies the right to compulsorily purchase land which is wholly or mainly abandoned or neglected, or the use or management of the land is causing harm to the environmental wellbeing of the community.
  
• The community right to buy to further sustainable development, which allows compliant community groups the opportunity to apply for the right to buy land to further sustainable development.

The last three of these are “absolute” rights to buy i.e. they can be exercised even if the land is not actively for sale. The consultation proposes to combine these three rights into one “absolute” right to buy with the aim of simplification.

In respect of the pre-emptive community right to buy, a successful late application to register does not in itself result in a right to buy, as the parties to the sale may decide to cancel the transaction. The consultation asks whether the owner should be prohibited from removing the asset from sale if the late application is approved. This is perhaps one of the more contentious points, as it could result in the right to buy being triggered giving the community group first opportunity to purchase at market value, with delays and uncertainty if the community group ultimately decides not to proceed.

Other questions in the consultation concern timings in the right to buy process and eligibility requirements for community groups. As the consultation’s focus is on those rights to buy exercisable by community groups, it does not cover the agricultural tenant’s rights to buy.

The consultation is available here and closes on 5 October 2025, following which the responses will be analysed resulting in a final set of proposals for the consideration of Sottish Ministers by December 2025.