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LANDOWNER LOSES APPEAL OVER PERMISSION FOR COMMUNITY BODY TO ACQUIRE ST ANDREWS PLOT OF LAND

In May 2025, Dundee Sheriff Court heard an appeal from a landowner challenging the Scottish Ministers’ decision to allow a community body to register the right to buy an apparently derelict plot of land in central St Andrews.

The community body seeking to acquire the land is “Poet’s Neuk”, who propose to develop the land as a public poetry garden dedicated to Mary Queen of Scots. In their application to register the right to buy, Poet’s Neuk say that the proposed garden would “provide a quiet space in the busy centre of St Andrews and an attraction for domestic and international visitors to the town”. They had initially made a successful application under Part 5 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016, namely the “right to buy land to further sustainable development”. This is a right to buy which can be exercised at any time regardless of whether the landowner wishes to sell. A community body that buys land under this right to buy must pay market value, as assessed by an independent valuer.

The Sheriff refused the appeal by the landowner in respect of the Scottish Ministers’ decision to accept Poet’s Neuk’s application, allowing them to force the sale of the land. This is a important decision for landowners not just because it is the first case of its kind to be considered by the Sheriff Appeal Court, but also because of the weight that the appeal decision places on community engagement and consultation for landowners.

In order to accept an application to register a right to buy under this Part of the 2016 Act, Scottish Ministers must be satisfied that the application meets the “sustainable conditions” set out in the legislation. They are:

  • The transfer needs to further the achievement of sustainable development in relation to the land.
  • The transfer must be in the public interest.
  • The transfer is:
    • likely to result in significant benefit to the relevant community; and
    • the only practicable, or the most practicable, way of achieving that significant benefit.
  • Not granting consent to the transfer of land is likely to result in harm to that community.

In considering the above sustainable conditions, the legislation provides that the Scottish Ministers may take into account the extent to which regard has been made by the landowner to specific guidance on community engagement issued by the Scottish Government in 2018. The guidance is available on the Scottish Government’s website here. The guidance applies to all situations where decisions are being made about land which might affect local communities – so it is not restricted by transaction or land type. It provides amongst other things that community engagement should be undertaken when making a decision relating to land that will have a significant impact on a community and sets out when and how that engagement should be undertaken.

In the Poet’s Neuk case, the owner had not been aware that such guidance had been issued in 2018 and therefore could not provide evidence to the court that they had engaged with the community. The Sheriff decided that the Scottish Ministers were therefore entitled to have regard to the fact that there had been no evidence of community consultation when accepting the application for a right to buy.

The Sheriff went on to say that a lack of evidence of community consultation “would lead the court to conclude that there was justification for the removal of the property rights of the owner”.

This decision could have significant implications for landowners in Scotland, particularly as greater consideration is being placed on community engagement than before. In particular, landowners may be required to provide evidence of community consultation in accordance with the guidance when making decisions on land in order to avoid community buy outs.

All of the four community rights to buy are currently under review by the Scottish Government, with a consultation having been launched last month and a report due to be made available at end of this year (please see separate article in this newsletter). Since the judgement for Poet’s Neuk was issued, another application under the sustainable development right to buy has been made for an heritage orchard site in Perthshire which is currently marked as “pending” and will progress over the course of this year.