landowners

While the whole world watches how digital and financial power is concentrated in the hands of a handful of millionaires in Silicon Valley, Scotland stands out for something much more physical but which serves as an example that this concentration of power in a few hands has been happening for centuries: land. Only 421 owners control around the 50% of private rural land of the country. It is a figure that is difficult to find in other countries and makes Scotland practically unique in Europe. What is surprising is not only the concentration of land in a few hands, but its persistence. While much of the continent fragmented property after revolutions, agrarian reforms or wars, Scotland has reached the 21st century with a territorial structure that has barely changed in centuries, maintaining its feudal structure. An anomaly with historical roots. The key to this territorial anomaly is intrinsically linked to its history. Scotland never experienced a radical break with its system of large estates. The power of the tribal clans first and the landowning aristocracy later consolidated enormous areas under a single owner. When other European countries redistributed land among their citizens, in Scotland the right to property remained almost intact. The historical studies reveal that already at the end of the 19th century the land was concentrated in a few hands, and the arrival of the modern State did not substantially alter that map. The result is that Scotland enters the 21st century with a property map that appears frozen in time. A European rarity considered “exceptional”. Why wasn’t it distributed? The absence of a profound territorial reform was not accidental. Unlike France, Germany or the Nordic countries, there was no massive redistribution of the land when feudal privileges were abolished. One of the reasons that weighs most heavily in this “anomaly” is that in Scotland there was no revolution or civil war that promoted a social change and land ownership, as happened in Europe with the World Wars, with the French Revolution, with the different dictatorships. Thanks to this territorial calm, the United Kingdom avoided major agrarian redistributions and protected private property as a pillar of its economic and political system. From lords to billionaires. For centuries, the great owners were dukes and great lords of aristocratic families. Today the profile is more diverse but equally wealthy. Scotland has become a magnet for international millionaires, heirs to large fortunes, investment funds. The reason why has attracted so many millionaires It is simple: few regions in Europe offer such large areas of land and the legal stability with respect to territory that Scotland offers. This is the case of Danish businessman Anders Povlsen, fashion magnate at the head of brands such as Jack&Jones and one of the main investors in the online giant Zalando, which in recent years has become one of the largest private landowners in the United Kingdom. Along the same lines we find the billionaire heiress of the Lego empire who, according to published The Timeslittle by little has been acquiring huge plots in the Scottish Highlands. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, emir of Dubai, is also among the new landowners who is acquiring land in Scotland at a frenetic pace. He already has eight houses in that area Owning land is a sign of power. In the Middle Ages, owning land was a symbol of economic power since a productive benefit was obtained from the crops. Today, it also maintains that powerful status, although for different reasons. Whoever controls thousands of hectares of land influences housing development, in energy projectsin land use and in the future of entire communities. a study of the Scottish Land Commission warns that such extreme concentration of land in the hands of a few landowners can limit local democracy and slow rural development, as a few people make key decisions about huge territories and those who live in or around them. Reforms that advance slowly. The Scottish Government has attempted to correct this anomaly with new territorial reform laws. Transparency has been improved, public procurement has been facilitated and the introduction of “public interest” mechanisms for large urban plans is being debated. However, both analysts and British media agree that current tools are completely insufficient to substantially change the balance on Scotland’s land ownership map. Concentration remains the norm, not the exception. Instead of dividing, they regroup. The most paradoxical thing about this situation is that, despite the political debate, recent data They show a reconcentration driven by the new millionaires turned landowners, who are buying large tracts of land and their surroundings. That is, properties that already belonged to others are once again concentrated under a single owner. He follow-up carried out by former MP Andy Wightman reveals that most big land deals end up in the hands of those who were already big landowners. These operations are supported by a real estate market that works in their favor due to high prices, a low supply and buyers with great financial capacity. The high prices of farms make them inaccessible to local communities or farmers who cannot compete against the financial capacity of millionaires. The gentrification has arrived to the Scottish Highlands. In Xataka | In California, the funds discovered that there is no investment more profitable than farmland. Now it’s Spain’s turn Image | Unsplash (Toni Tan, Garvit Nama)