Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025: Preparing for Land Management Plans (Part 3)

Overview

As briefly mentioned in Part 1 of this series, Land Management Plans (LMPs) will be the principal community engagement obligation imposed on owners of certain large landholdings under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025. The detailed rules will be set by regulations to be made by the Scottish Ministers, but the direction of travel is clear: greater transparency, mandatory community engagement and enforceable public reporting obligations. Affected rural estates, institutional landowners and investors alike should prepare for a more regulated and resource‑intensive approach to land use planning.

What we know so far

Once the relevant regulations are made under section 44A, owners of land that is a ‘large landholding’ (LLH) (discussed in Part 1 of this series) will be required to ensure that there is a publicly available LMP for their land. The specific content and format of LMPs are yet to be prescribed by the Scottish Ministers. However, the Act sets out the categories of information that the regulations must require an LMP to contain, namely:

• Details of the land and its ownership structure.
• The owner’s long-term vision and objectives for managing the land, including its potential sale.
• How the owner has engaged with communities and tenants (including, where relevant, crofters and small landholders) on the development of the plan and how that engagement influenced it.
• How the owner complies with the Act, the Scottish Outdoor Access Code and the code of practice on deer management.
• How the owner’s land management will contribute to Scotland’s net-zero emissions target, adapt to climate change and increase biodiversity.
• How regard will be had to any local place plan affecting the land.

Production of an LMP is intended to be an ongoing obligation. The Act requires engagement with communities and tenants both on the development of, and on significant changes to, the plan, and the plan must be reviewed and, where appropriate, revised before the end of each five-year period beginning with the day on which the latest version was made publicly available.

Compliance with the LMP obligations will be enforced by the new Land and Communities Commissioner under the tiered fines regime described in Part 1 of this series, with fines appealable to the Lands Tribunal for Scotland.

Importantly, the Act contemplates that the regulations may impose the LMP obligation in relation to only some of the land within an LLH rather than all of it. Where the Scottish Ministers propose to do so, they must lay before the Scottish Parliament, at the same time as the draft regulations, a statement of their reasons for not applying the obligation to all such land.

For owners of LLHs, this carve-out is potentially significant. It opens the door for the regulations to exclude certain categories of land within an LLH from the scope of the LMP obligation. Examples might include areas that are tenanted, subject to commercial forestry, of limited community interest, or otherwise unsuited to the LMP framework. In practice, this could meaningfully reduce the compliance burden for some estates, particularly those with mixed-use holdings or complex tenancy arrangements. Equally, however, it creates a degree of uncertainty: until the regulations and the accompanying statement of reasons are published, owners will not know which parts of their landholdings are caught and which are not. Owners should therefore monitor the consultation process closely and, where appropriate, engage with it to ensure that any practical concerns about scope are reflected in the final regulations.

How can landowners prepare?

As covered previously in this series, these provisions will not be in force until the Scottish Ministers produce commencement regulations. Nonetheless, prescribed LMP formats, detailed consultation standards, publication mechanisms and registers can all be expected as part of the new land management regime.

With this in mind, landowners have an opportunity to prepare themselves for more onerous regulations. Specifically, estate teams and existing advisers can:

• Map landholdings and connected persons to reveal exposure to the new regime.
• Identify key stakeholders and engagement history.
• Review record-keeping and governance mechanisms.
• Consider reputational risk of information disclosed by the LMP.

It is anticipated that LMPs will form part of the due diligence process for both lenders and purchasers. Adapting to these new changes will therefore be key in ensuring transactional readiness and marketing land to potential purchasers, particularly for those operating in sectors such as natural capital.

How can we help?

As the rules relating to large landholdings continue to evolve, early legal input can help landowners manage community expectations, design compliant consultation processes and mitigate enforcement and reputational risk. If you have any questions about the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 or its impact on your landholding, please contact Darren Thomson or another member of our Estates and Land team.

This article was written by Darren Thomson and Bryn Davies.