Can a Community Group Take Over Derelict Land in Scotland? The Three Legal Routes

A fenced-off patch at the end of the street, waist-high in nettles, or a strip behind the community hall that the council has left to grass over: the first question a gardening group asks is whether it can simply take the ground over for allotments or a community garden.

Whichever route applies, the group needs to be a formal community body, usually a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO). Community Gardens vs Allotments covers what that involves and why liability and insurance usually point towards incorporating rather than staying informal.

Two checks come first: who owns the land, and, if it is council land, whether it is held as common good property, which has its own extra process on top of anything below. A private owner narrows things to the two right-to-buy routes, and a public body points to asset transfer.

The three routes side by side

Community Right to Buy: registering an interest, not forcing a sale

Part 2 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 lets a community body register an interest in land on the Register of Community Interests in Land. Registration buys nothing by itself. If the owner later decides to sell, the registered body gets first refusal, at a market price rather than a discount.

To register, the body must be a company limited by guarantee, a SCIO or a community benefit society, with a constitution built around community control of a defined area. Registration also needs evidence of support: Ministers must treat approval from one tenth or more of the community as sufficient, and may accept less. The approval has to be recent (approval indicated more than six months before the application does not count), and in practice it is shown with a petition. A registered interest lasts five years and can be renewed within the six months before it expires, with a fresh petition.

This is not a compulsory purchase. It cannot stop the owner selling to someone else; it only creates the right to be offered the land first if a sale happens at all. For a group eyeing a patch of private ground, it helps only if the owner is likely to sell eventually.

When the owner does decide to sell, they notify Ministers and the community body. The body has 30 days from the date in the notice to confirm it wants to go ahead, and the land cannot be sold to anyone else meanwhile. If the body and the seller cannot agree a price, Ministers appoint an independent valuer to assess the market value, and the valuer has eight weeks to report. If the two sides agree a price, that is what is paid; otherwise it is the valuer's figure, or the figure set if that valuation is appealed to the Lands Tribunal.

The 2003 Act also has a separate right to buy for crofting communities (Part 3), which applies to crofted land and works differently; it is not a route for an ordinary growing group.

Abandoned, neglected or detrimental land: the forced-sale route

Part 3A of the 2003 Act, added by the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, can force a sale where the owner has no wish to sell. The land has to be wholly or mainly abandoned or neglected, or its use or management has to be harming the environmental wellbeing of the community. It is the route that fits an owner who clearly doesn't care about the land, and it asks a great deal of the community.

Ministers must consent, and they can only do so if satisfied that the purchase is in the public interest and compatible with sustainable development, that the owner staying on would be unlikely to further sustainable development, that the community has approved the proposal, and that the body has tried and failed to buy the land by other means. In practice that means:

• Approval by ballot. A secret postal ballot of the whole community, held within the six months before applying, with a majority of those voting in favour.
• An offer to the owner first. A written offer to buy, made at least six months before the application.
• Regulators first, where the case rests on harm. The body must have asked the relevant regulator to act on the harm before applying.

There is no fixed percentage for the ballot as there is for the Part 2 petition; support is measured by the vote itself. The decision to consent rests with Ministers, not the community body, and the valuation can be appealed to the Lands Tribunal within 21 days of notification. An application is not considered if the owner has already signed an enforceable obligation to sell to someone else, such as an option agreement.

Some land is excluded outright: a building that is an individual's home (unless occupied under a tenancy), eligible croft land, crofts occupied or worked by the owner or their family, and some land that has fallen to the CrownThe base of a perennial plant where roots and shoots meet, often sold and planted as a ready-made dormant plant rather than grown from seed. Full definition →. Applications go on a separate register, the Register of Applications by Community Bodies to Buy Land.

A group drawn to this route should treat it as a project in its own right, not a form to submit. It is not a way to stop an owner developing the land: whether a housing or other proposal goes ahead is for the planning authority.

What buying costs and who funds it

Under either private-land route the group pays the market value of the land, plus legal and surveying fees. The Scottish Land Fund is the usual source of funding. It is delivered by the Scottish Government with the National Lottery Community Fund and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and is open to community bodies in defined areas across Scotland, not only in the Highlands and Islands. Grant ranges:

The ranges come from a government evaluation of the Fund. The Fund's own guidance gives a lower indicative minimum of £5,000 for acquisition, and figures change between funding rounds, so check the current guidance before budgeting. A Stage 1 grant counts towards the eligible costs of Stage 2.

Community Asset Transfer: the request route that fits most gardening groups

Part 5 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 applies when the land is publicly owned. It is a request process, not a right to buy. A community transfer body (a company with at least 20 members, a community benefit society, a SCIO or another designated body) can ask a relevant authority for ownership, a lease, or other rights to manage, occupy or use land or buildings. Relevant authorities include local authorities, Scottish Ministers and their agencies, and NHS boards.

The authority must agree unless there are reasonable grounds for refusing, and assesses the request on benefits such as economic development, regeneration, public health and reducing inequality. A transfer can be below market value where the benefits justify the discount; the guidance warns bodies not to assume a nominal sum.

The authority must issue a decision notice within six months of the request being validated, or a longer period if both sides agree. Guidance suggests a simple request can take as little as three months. After a decision to agree, the body has at least a further six months to submit its formal offer. If a request is refused, there are review and appeal routes. A council's decision goes to internal review and then to Scottish Ministers on appeal; Ministers' own decisions on requests made to them are reviewed on application.

Part 5 does not name allotments or growing as a category; it covers any land or buildings. What is specific to growing is Part 9 of the same Act: every local authority must prepare and publish a food-growing strategy that identifies land which may be used as allotment sites, and review it at least every five years. Council land already earmarked there, or land the council is not using, is a realistic asset-transfer target, and worth checking before assuming a plot needs a full right-to-buy case.

If the plot is common good property, the council must publish details of a proposed disposal or change of use and invite representations from community councils and other community bodies before deciding. Where the council's right to dispose of the land is in doubt, court authorisation is also needed. That does not rule out an asset transfer, but it adds a step Part 5 alone does not cover.

Which route fits a given piece of land

For private land it comes down to reading the owner rather than the state of the ground. If the owner is likely to sell eventually, registering an interest under Part 2 is the lower-effort option: it waits for the sale and gives first refusal. If the owner shows no sign of selling and the land is derelict, neglected or causing harm, Part 3A is the only route that can move things without the owner's cooperation, but it needs a public interest case, a ballot and an earlier offer to buy, with no guarantee at the end. While a longer route runs, a licence or short lease from the owner is a quicker way to start growing, if the owner is willing.

If the real goal is simply an allotment plot, Part 9 also lets any person living in a council's area request one; the council keeps a list of requests and must take reasonable steps to keep it in proportion to the plots available and to move people on within five years. Community Gardens vs Allotments compares that with acquiring and running a site independently.

Common questions

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