exchange. There should also be another method to cancel liens imposed by back taxes: if a landowner finds a business willing to operate on that property, then the liens against the property ought to begin to diminish over time. There shouldn’t be an immediate cancellation of the liens, because unscrupulous landowners might temporarily open a doomed business, only to sell the property the moment their liens are cancelled.
These policies and taxes have two effects. First, they require landowners to keep their property in good condition, even when that property is not being used. This is vital, because businesses can’t rent facilities which are falling down. Second, they create a massive incentive for landowners to find or start businesses which will employ Scots locally. This will pave the way for investment in the more deprived parts of Scotland.
But there’s a third part of public policy that must be included in land reform, and that is the ultimate right of compulsory purchase, called the right of eminent domain in the United States. This right is an expression of local sovereignty, and is vital to any community atempting to grow its economy or redevelop deprived areas.
Current restrictions on compulsory purchase are far too heavy. Scotland is a country where land is priced at
If landowners simply cannot care for the properties they own, if they’re unable to be good stewards of Scottish land, then they shouldn’t be allowed to soldier on in the forlorn hope that the crumbling property they own might someday become profitable.
a premium, and where many Scots might never afford their own homes. The gap between the basic level of income and the price of a decent house is huge. Yet there are a great many properties which are being allowed to decay. If landowners simply cannot care for the properties they own, if they’re unable to be good stewards of Scotish land, then they shouldn’t be allowed to soldier on in the forlorn hope that the crumbling property they own might someday become profitable in a way that benefits the community around them.
Local councils simply don’t have the compulsory purchase authority to buy derelict or abandoned properties. As long as local authorities are heavily restricted in their purchase of land, there will never be the kind of economic growth that Scotland needs to wipe out the deprivation which leaves people unemployed, and local councils underfunded.
Photo: Kieran Hamilton
Abandoned
THE UGLY July 2015 35
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