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10 Nov 2025

Trust reacts to Land Reform Bill update

Glenlude

Following campaigning from the John Muir Trust, Ramblers Scotland, Community Land Scotland and others, the number of estates which will be required to publish Land Management Plans, support wild places and comply with the Scottish Outdoor Access Code has been doubled to a total of about 700, covering just over 60% of Scotland’s land.

Earlier this year, our Director of Policy David Fleetwood gave evidence to the Net Zero and Transport Committee, setting out the Trust’s views that land reform is needed in Scotland due to the poor track record of many large landowners. He argued the threshold to be included as a large landowner should be lowered to 1,000 hectares.

Following David's intervention, MSPs voted to lower the threshold as advocated for by the Trust. In the original text, only extremely large estates of more than 3,000 hectares – the equivalent of 6,000 football pitches – were included. 

The Trust's views on the Land Reform Bill are supported by evidence from work published by Scottish Land and Estates (SLE) on activities of their members (larger landowners in Scotland), which shows that:

  •  54% of estates don’t restore rivers, flood plains or riparian habitats.
  • 57% don’t plant and maintain hedges for wildlife or implement natural solutions to manage floodwater.
  • 66% aren’t involved in managing or creating woodland.
  • 70% aren’t involved in restoring grassland, wetland, heathland and/or costal habitats.

A few days after the bill was passed, our Head of Campaigns, Thomas Widrow, addressed REVIVE's conference in November 2025. Looking ahead to the Scottish parliament election in May 2026, he confirmed the John Muir Trust would support the coalition's manifesto for land reform. The REVIVE manifesto includes the Trust's call for establishing a Carbon Emissions Land Tax.

Thomas said: “The Land Reform Bill is a critical piece of legislation for wild places. We have been making a strong case to lower the threshold for defining a ‘large landholding' down to 1,000 hectares so we are delighted that MSPs have taken our advice."

“This bill is a step in the right direction, albeit a small one. For example, while landowners will have to demonstrate how they Land Management Plans 'improve' nature, and not simply sustain what is left, the bill falls short of sanctioning landowners who do not implement these plans.

"We know that many large landowners fail to deliver for nature, so this omission is a real missed opportunity."