Chance to give fresh impetus to rural renewal
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Photograph: MARGARET SORAYA Chance to give fresh impetus to rural renewal focus focas Friday 30 March 2018 14 whfp.com With some innovative policy thinking, the Planning Bill currently making its way through the Scottish Parliament could help address the depopulation crisis facing the Highlands and Islands, says DR CALUM MACLEOD Talla na Mara arts and entertainment visitor centre in Harris is just one example of what can be achieved on community-owned estates L ast week the James Hutton Institute published a report on demographic change in Scotland’s Sparsely Populated Areas that makes for grim reading. The Scottish Government- commissioned research estimates that these areas — including great swathes of the Highlands and Islands and parts of the Southern Uplands — risk losing over a quarter of their population by 2046 if current demographic trends are left unchanged. The core message from Dr Andrew Copus, the report’s lead author, is stark. “Scotland’s sparsely populated areas have a demographic legacy which, in the absence of intervention, will result in decades of population decline, and shrinkage of its working age population on a scale which implies serious challenges for economic development.” These findings will not be especially revelatory to readers of this newspaper, many of whom live in these very areas. They do, however, raise some fundamental policy questions about the future of rural Scotland, the place of people in the landscape, and ideas about what constitutes ‘sustainable’ development. They also imply an urgent need for a far more imaginative policy approach to reverse the flow of depopulation from sparsely-populated areas which together account for almost half (48.7 per cent) the area of Scotland but contain only 2.6 per cent of the country’s population. There’s no quick or easy fix for a depopulation problem that has bedevilled parts of the Highlands and Islands for decades. There is, however, one immediate opportunity to inject fresh impetus into rural renewal in the form of the Planning (Scotland) Bill currently being considered by the Local Government and Communities Committee of the Scottish Parliament. According to an accompanying policy memorandum, both the Bill and a wider planning policy review “aim to change planning’s operation and its reputation from that of a regulator to a positive and active enabler of good quality development; a shift from reacting to development proposals to proactively supporting investment and quality placemaking”. On the face of it, the Planning Bill looks like unpromising fare to kick-start a long-term and sustainable upsurge in rural renewal. It focuses on highly-technical, process-orientated issues such as simplified development zones, development plans, and infrastructure levies. Yet, with some innovative policy thinking the final version of the legislation that will emerge in Parliament later this year could go a long way towards addressing the demographic and development crisis forecast in the Hutton Institute report. Community Land Scotland is already supplying some of that innovative thinking. In written evidence on the Planning Bill submitted to the Local Government and Communities Committee, CLS calls for a duty for Scottish Ministers to have regard for the desirability of repopulating rural Scotland and resettling previously populated land which is now largely or wholly de-populated when setting new planning policies. The organisation is also calling for Scottish Ministers to be granted powers to designate land for its resettlement, and for Scottish Ministers and local authorities to be given powers to purchase land for its resettlement, including compulsory purchase powers. CLS advocates granting a community right to buy land for resettlement by community bodies nearest to such land. A further innovative policy proposal is for Scottish Minsters to produce a map of ‘no longer existing communities’ within five years of the Planning Bill being passed and for Ministers to have regard for that map when preparing future policies. Community Land Scotland’s proposals are not about pressing the reset button on the Highland Clearances, important though that legacy has been in shaping the evolution of the region. Neither are they about subtracting from the social and economic cohesion of existing communities in rural Scotland. Instead they recognise that repopulation and resettlement can reinforce that cohesion by stimulating economic activity based on information and telecommunications technology and place- based assets to create jobs that are less reliant on traditional land-based sectors of the rural economy. As such, CLS’s proposals are concerned with developing existing and new settlements with appropriate infrastructure and affordable housing to encourage in-migration of working- age people to counter the damaging effects of regional depopulation identified in the Hutton Institute’s report. S UCH AN APPROACH is not without historical precedent. In the 1890s, a Royal Commission was established to report on and map depopulated land in the Highlands and Islands that might be suitable for repopulation. The commission’s findings were influential in shaping subsequent legislation — particularly the Land Settlement (Scotland) Act 1919 — which returned significant amounts of depopulated land to crofting occupation. As CLS’s Planning Bill evidence submission notes, many of today’s crofting communities — on the west side of the Uists and Harris, in the north and west of Skye, in Raasay and elsewhere — owe their existence to the early twentieth-century governments which undertook these resettlement initiatives. It’s worth noting too that in community-owned estates such as in West Harris, decades of depopulation have been reversed as a result of affordable housing developments and opportunities for new local businesses to be established. M ORE RECENTLY there has been discussion about resettlement initiatives within an urban context, primarily informed by the need to address a shortage in affordable housing in Scotland. In 2014 the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors called for the Scottish Government to create six to eight major new communities in the form of new towns, “strategic regeneration” within existing towns or as extensions to existing communities. That proposal to create a generation of new towns was echoed by Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, in a speech to the Institute of Public Policy Research last year, in which she also called for powers to be given to local authorities over the development of new towns if necessary. So, if it is legitimate to consider resettlement within an urban context, then it is surely equally legitimate to do so within the context of rural Scotland. That, in turn, raises a wider question about the legitimate place of people in the landscape. The next stage of the James Hutton Institute’s research on which its report on demographic change is based will apparently include examining “the potential of sparsely populated areas as an environmental resource to support the wellbeing of urban Scotland”. That strand of forthcoming research rather depressingly sums up how chronically out of touch the view of rural Scotland is from an urban vantage point. One in which extensive areas of the Highlands and Islands are portrayed as a wild idyll, uncontaminated by human hands and pristine in their rugged majesty. Beguiling though it seems, that portrayal masks an inconvenient truth; the Highlands and Islands were never ‘wild’. Instead these are socially-constructed imaginings of the Highland landscape, reinforced by an externally-imposed policy narrative of ‘wild land’. The application of this narrative to these areas effectively appropriates the meanings attached to landscapes and determines dominant ideas of ‘stewardship’ and ‘sustainability’. In turn, these ideas, transformed into policy, shape how landscapes are experienced and consumed via a succession of statutory and non-statutory designations. The most obvious example of this phenomenon relates to designated ‘wild land’ maps (of which there are 42 in Scotland totalling 3,798,817 acres). Although not statutory designations, planning policy states that consideration should be given to these maps, alongside other factors, in making planning decisions. Many of the qualities ascribed to ‘wild land’ by Scottish Natural Heritage in developing these maps are highly subjective with — according to research being conducted on behalf of CLS — apparently little or no community engagement in the process. The critical broader point — which CLS’s proposed ‘map of no longer existing communities’ seeks to amplify — is that it is unacceptable to attempt to airbush generations of human intervention from the mosaic of characteristics that comprise landscapes. Moreover, it is legitimate for people to be involved in defining and characterising the landscapes they inhabit, as a matter of justice. Consequently, the key challenge from a rural renewal standpoint is how to rebalance the process of characterising landscapes in ways that empower existing and new rural communities to use environmental assets for their sustainable economic development. T HERE IS much to play for in terms of finding ways to repopulate and renew rural Scotland and, as the Hutton Institute’s report indicates, the stakes could scarcely be higher. In important respects, community ownership continues to act as a trailblazer in that regard. The Scottish Government recently approved the North West Mull Community Woodland Company’s application to exercise a community right to buy the Isle of Ulva together with an award of £4.4 million from the Scottish Land Fund to finance the purchase. These developments confirm the Scottish Government’s continuing ambition for community land ownership as a means for rural repopulation and renewal, given that the North West Mull company has made substantially increasing the island’s resident population of six people a key objective of the proposed buyout. However, that ambition must not halt on the shoreline of Ulva. A wider mix of imaginative policy interventions is required if policymakers are genuinely serious about renewing rural Scotland. Delivering a Planning Bill that incorporates repopulation and resettlement provisions for sustainable rural development would be a good start. Dr Calum MacLeod is a sustainable development consultant and Policy Director for Community Land Scotland. This article is written in a personal capacity. Twitter: @CalumMacleod07 CALUM MACLEOD p14 2396.qxp 28/03/2018 15:21 Page 1
Transcript of Chance to give fresh impetus to rural renewal
Photo
graph: M
ARGA
RET S
ORAY
A
Chance to give fresh impetus to rural renewal
focusfocas
Friday 30 March 201814 whfp.com
With some innovativepolicy thinking, thePlanning Bill currentlymaking its way throughthe Scottish Parliamentcould help address thedepopulation crisisfacing the Highlands andIslands, says DR CALUMMACLEOD
Talla na Mara arts and entertainment visitor centrein Harris is just one example of what can beachieved on community-owned estates
Last week the James Hutton Institutepublished a report on demographicchange in Scotland’s Sparsely
Populated Areas that makes for grimreading. The Scottish Government-commissioned research estimates thatthese areas — including great swathes ofthe Highlands and Islands and parts of theSouthern Uplands — risk losing over aquarter of their population by 2046 ifcurrent demographic trends are leftunchanged.The core message from Dr Andrew Copus,
the report’s lead author, is stark. “Scotland’ssparsely populated areas have a demographiclegacy which, in the absence of intervention,will result in decades of population decline, andshrinkage of its working age population on ascale which implies serious challenges foreconomic development.”These findings will not be especially
revelatory to readers of this newspaper, many ofwhom live in these very areas. They do,however, raise some fundamental policyquestions about the future of rural Scotland, theplace of people in the landscape, and ideas aboutwhat constitutes ‘sustainable’ development.They also imply an urgent need for a far moreimaginative policy approach to reverse the flowof depopulation from sparsely-populated areaswhich together account for almost half (48.7 percent) the area of Scotland but contain only 2.6per cent of the country’s population.There’s no quick or easy fix for a
depopulation problem that has bedevilled partsof the Highlands and Islands for decades. Thereis, however, one immediate opportunity toinject fresh impetus into rural renewal in theform of the Planning (Scotland) Bill currentlybeing considered by the Local Government andCommunities Committee of the ScottishParliament.According to an accompanying policy
memorandum, both the Bill and a wider planningpolicy review “aim to change planning’soperation and its reputation from that of aregulator to a positive and active enabler of goodquality development; a shift from reacting todevelopment proposals to proactively supportinginvestment and quality placemaking”.On the face of it, the Planning Bill looks like
unpromising fare to kick-start a long-term andsustainable upsurge in rural renewal. It focuseson highly-technical, process-orientated issuessuch as simplified development zones,development plans, and infrastructure levies.Yet, with some innovative policy thinking thefinal version of the legislation that will emergein Parliament later this year could go a long
way towards addressing the demographic anddevelopment crisis forecast in the HuttonInstitute report.Community Land Scotland is already
supplying some of that innovative thinking. Inwritten evidence on the Planning Bill submittedto the Local Government and CommunitiesCommittee, CLS calls for a duty for ScottishMinisters to have regard for the desirability ofrepopulating rural Scotland and resettlingpreviously populated land which is now largelyor wholly de-populated when setting newplanning policies. The organisation is alsocalling for Scottish Ministers to be grantedpowers to designate land for its resettlement,and for Scottish Ministers and local authoritiesto be given powers to purchase land for itsresettlement, including compulsory purchasepowers.CLS advocates granting a community right
to buy land for resettlement by communitybodies nearest to such land. A furtherinnovative policy proposal is for ScottishMinsters to produce a map of ‘no longerexisting communities’ within five years of thePlanning Bill being passed and for Ministers tohave regard for that map when preparing futurepolicies.Community Land Scotland’s proposals are
not about pressing the reset button on theHighland Clearances, important though thatlegacy has been in shaping the evolution of theregion. Neither are they about subtracting fromthe social and economic cohesion of existingcommunities in rural Scotland. Instead theyrecognise that repopulation and resettlementcan reinforce that cohesion by stimulatingeconomic activity based on information andtelecommunications technology and place-based assets to create jobs that are less relianton traditional land-based sectors of the ruraleconomy.As such, CLS’s proposals are concerned
with developing existing and new settlementswith appropriate infrastructure and affordablehousing to encourage in-migration of working-age people to counter the damaging effects ofregional depopulation identified in the HuttonInstitute’s report.
SUCH AN APPROACH is not withouthistorical precedent. In the 1890s, a RoyalCommission was established to report on
and map depopulated land in the Highlands andIslands that might be suitable for repopulation.The commission’s findings were influential
in shaping subsequent legislation —particularly the Land Settlement (Scotland) Act1919 — which returned significant amounts ofdepopulated land to crofting occupation.As CLS’s Planning Bill evidence submission
notes, many of today’s crofting communities
— on the west side of the Uists and Harris, inthe north and west of Skye, in Raasay andelsewhere — owe their existence to the earlytwentieth-century governments whichundertook these resettlement initiatives. It’sworth noting too that in community-ownedestates such as in West Harris, decades ofdepopulation have been reversed as a result ofaffordable housing developments andopportunities for new local businesses to beestablished.
MORE RECENTLY there has beendiscussion about resettlement initiativeswithin an urban context, primarily
informed by the need to address a shortage inaffordable housing in Scotland.In 2014 the Royal Institute for Chartered
Surveyors called for the Scottish Governmentto create six to eight major new communities inthe form of new towns, “strategic regeneration”within existing towns or as extensions toexisting communities. That proposal to create ageneration of new towns was echoed by RuthDavidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives,in a speech to the Institute of Public PolicyResearch last year, in which she also called forpowers to be given to local authorities over thedevelopment of new towns if necessary.So, if it is legitimate to consider resettlement
within an urban context, then it is surelyequally legitimate to do so within the contextof rural Scotland.That, in turn, raises a wider question about
the legitimate place of people in the landscape.The next stage of the James Hutton Institute’sresearch on which its report on demographicchange is based will apparently includeexamining “the potential of sparsely populatedareas as an environmental resource to supportthe wellbeing of urban Scotland”.That strand of forthcoming research rather
depressingly sums up how chronically out oftouch the view of rural Scotland is from anurban vantage point. One in which extensiveareas of the Highlands and Islands are portrayedas a wild idyll, uncontaminated by human handsand pristine in their rugged majesty.Beguiling though it seems, that portrayal
masks an inconvenient truth; the Highlands andIslands were never ‘wild’. Instead these aresocially-constructed imaginings of the Highlandlandscape, reinforced by an externally-imposedpolicy narrative of ‘wild land’. The applicationof this narrative to these areas effectivelyappropriates the meanings attached to landscapesand determines dominant ideas of ‘stewardship’and ‘sustainability’. In turn, these ideas,transformed into policy, shape how landscapesare experienced and consumed via a successionof statutory and non-statutory designations.The most obvious example of this
phenomenon relates to designated ‘wild land’maps (of which there are 42 in Scotlandtotalling 3,798,817 acres). Although notstatutory designations, planning policy statesthat consideration should be given to thesemaps, alongside other factors, in makingplanning decisions. Many of the qualitiesascribed to ‘wild land’ by Scottish NaturalHeritage in developing these maps are highlysubjective with — according to research beingconducted on behalf of CLS — apparently littleor no community engagement in the process.The critical broader point — which CLS’s
proposed ‘map of no longer existingcommunities’ seeks to amplify — is that it isunacceptable to attempt to airbush generations ofhuman intervention from the mosaic ofcharacteristics that comprise landscapes.Moreover, it is legitimate for people to beinvolved in defining and characterising thelandscapes they inhabit, as a matter of justice.Consequently, the key challenge from a ruralrenewal standpoint is how to rebalance theprocess of characterising landscapes in ways thatempower existing and new rural communities touse environmental assets for their sustainableeconomic development.
THERE IS much to play for in terms offinding ways to repopulate and renewrural Scotland and, as the Hutton
Institute’s report indicates, the stakes couldscarcely be higher. In important respects,community ownership continues to act as atrailblazer in that regard.The Scottish Government recently approved
the North West Mull Community WoodlandCompany’s application to exercise a communityright to buy the Isle of Ulva together withan award of £4.4 million from the Scottish LandFund to finance the purchase. Thesedevelopments confirm the ScottishGovernment’s continuing ambition forcommunity land ownership as a means for ruralrepopulation and renewal, given that the NorthWest Mull company has made substantiallyincreasing the island’s resident population of sixpeople a key objective of the proposed buyout. However, that ambition must not halt on the
shoreline of Ulva. A wider mix of imaginativepolicy interventions is required if policymakersare genuinely serious about renewing ruralScotland. Delivering a Planning Bill thatincorporates repopulation and resettlementprovisions for sustainable rural developmentwould be a good start. Dr Calum MacLeod is a sustainabledevelopment consultant and Policy Directorfor Community Land Scotland. This article iswritten in a personal capacity.
Twitter: @CalumMacleod07
CALUM MACLEOD
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