Cohousing-L Mailing List: What a Small Island Off the Coast of Scotland Could Teach America

[Sara Gottlieb (sara.gottlieb]

I thought folks on this list would be interested in this article about how
Scotlant allows communities to buy land and self govern (and how it's not
always easy - surprise!).  This is a gift article from the NY Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/opinion/scotland-rural-communities-ulva.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4k4.E51X.sAIgGDK_kt2M&smid=em-share

In 2003, the Scottish government, in an attempt to address this imbalance,
passed land reform laws
<https://www.gov.scot/publications/community-rights-to-buy-overview/pages/community-right-to-buy-the-part-2-right-to-buy/>
that
gave rural communities the right to register an interest in buying land and
the right of first refusal should the land come up for sale. Subsequent
laws created the Scottish Land Fund
<https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/media/Scotland-Land-Fund-guidance-nov-2023.pdf>
to
help communities buy land, extended the right of purchase to urban
communities and, quite radically, gave communities the power to force a
sale under special circumstances.

Today around 500 communities own over 500,000 acres of Scottish land. Some
of them — the Isle of Eigg off the west coast in particular — have become a
model of what’s possible. Under community ownership, the islanders of Eigg
built a renewable energy system that now powers the island 24/7, with about
90 percent of the energy coming from renewable sources. They rent out
affordable community housing and almost doubled the population, from 65 to
115.
-- 

Sara J. Gottlieb
sara.gottlieb [at] gmail.com