The Men Who Own Scotland BBC Scotland Investigates

Scotland. You know it's home. You know it's beautiful. But do you ever

wonder who actually owns it? We're not short of space in

Scotland, but just 432 individuals own half of all the privately held

land in the country. We're not short of space in

Scotland, but just 432 individuals I want to meet the people behind those

numbers. I'm going on a journey - it'll take

me around Scotland. I'll visit beautiful places and meet powerful

people - the multimillionaire property tycoon dressed in tweed,

the man whose family own some of our most spectacular lochs and mountains

and the laird whose family marched with Wallace and Bruce who's up to

his oxters in mud. This is a story which matters to all of us. It's a

story about who owned Scotland in the past and who should own it in

the future. If we don't see a fairer distribution of land, then we at

Parliament, we will have failed the people of Scotland. It may not be

fair, but I mean, is it fair that your wife is prettier than mine? If

someone doesn't have the bank balance to be able to buy it, maybe

that is unfair, but that's the way life is.

I have thousands of miles ahead of me. My quest? To meet the men who

own so much of Scotland. The question is, do they want to meet

me? I'll let you into a secret - they aren't all keen. But here in

Wester Ross, I've struck lucky. In these parts, there's one chap who

knows more about this stuff than anyone else and he's agreed to get

on his bike and help. Morning, John. Morning. How are you

today? And a nice morning it is, too. I wasn't expecting a

traditional Highland laird to arrive dressed quite like this - I was

expecting tweed. Bad luck! John Mackenzie owns 53,000 acres.

His family was given this land by James IV in the 15th century in

recognition of loyal service. Being close to the source of power pays,

but these days, it's renewable energy rather than royal patronage

which helps balance the books. John's new hydro scheme here has an

added bonus - heartbreakingly beautiful views over the sea to

Skye. John, there's one thing sitting here

which I just can't get my head around, and that is this - what does

it feel like to know that you own all of that? It may seem odd - the

notion that's mine doesn't really occur very often. It's always been

in my family. Yeah, I'm every proud of it and delighted that it's still

in one piece, that it's passing on - I'm pretty much redundant now

anyway. My son is in charge and, um...he's taking over so we continue

another generation. And so it goes on. So it goes on at the moment, but

under today's political pressure, we'll see. Whether we'll do another

500 years, I'm not entirely certain, but...I won't be around, so I don't

care. Go west and you discover John's land

is a classic Highland sporting estate, created to provide deer to

shoot and salmon to fish. But John also owns thousands of acres further

east. In these fertile fields, farming is the name of the game -

one family, tens of thousands of acres. He's one of the 432 people

who own half of Scotland's privately owned land.

Is it fair that so few people own so much of our country in the 21st

century? Is fairness really a critical element in life? It may not

be fair, but I mean, is it fair that your wife is prettier than mine?

That you win the lottery when I don't? Um...I... It's a concern

stirred up - as far as I can see - by those with axes to grind, but

frankly, the people who live in these large areas of single

ownership, it doesn't seem to bother them. It sounds like you're saying

to me, "Life's not fair. Get over it." Perfectly fair - yes, that's

how it is. I don't think fairness is, of itself, necessarily a

terribly critical thing. John may not think fairness is an

issue, but many other people do. And some of them are determined to do

something about it. If we were starting from scratch, I

doubt anyone would design a system where you ended up with only 432

people owning half the private land. There's some degree of doubt about

the actual figures, but let's take it as a given that is the accurate

figure. I wouldn't design a system where you ended up with such a

concentration of wealth and ownership in such a small group.

Fundamentally, is the system we have here in Scotland fair or unfair? I

think there are still unfairnesses in the system. I think that's a fair

comment to make. And that's why we are on a journey, in this particular

parliamentary session, to try and deliver radical reform.

SCOTTISH ACCORDION MUSIC PLAYS. Our current system of land ownership

has deep historical roots. Land has always been intertwined with

privilege and power. And the thing that makes Scotland distinctive is

the dominance of sporting estates. Even today, around a quarter of the

country is still devoted primarily to shooting, hunting and fishing.

The league table of big landowners includes the government, the

National Trust for Scotland and even the RSPB. But traditional estates

still hold five of the top ten places, with the Duke of Buccleuch's

estates leading the pack. I wanted to speak to one of the really big

traditional landowners, maybe even a duke, but despite trying pretty

hard, none of them wanted to talk to me.

This is the man who fights their corner and his time is often spent

staving off the blows of land reformers.

Are landowners being demonised? I think landowners, to an extent, are

being demonised. Fundamentally, is the argument that life isn't fair?

One big landowner said to me my wife may be more beautiful than his wife.

We've simply got to get over that. Well, as I said earlier, there's an

open property market there, there are estates, small bits of forest,

bits of land for sale every day. They're there for everyone to take

the opportunity. If someone doesn't have the bank balance to be able to

buy it, maybe that is unfair, but that's the way life is.

Ayrshire has changed a lot since I grew up here. Today, I've come home

to meet another local boy. We have a lot in common. We're about the same

age. But while my earliest years were spent in a bungalow, his were

spent in a walloping great castle. Simon Craufurd and his family own

600 acres in Ayrshire. It's a relatively small estate but the

family has played a big part in Scotland's history. Their reward?

Land...and that castle. It's not bad, living in a castle,

but there's always the concern about what's going to go wrong next and

the repair bills in a building this size are not inconsequential, so

it's... That can be quite a worry, sometimes, yes. This isn't Downton

Abbey, is it? LAUGHING: No, I don't think it is Downton Abbey. It's a

little bit more like real life, but I like doing it, that's why I do it.

But I don't do it cos I'm making lots of money doing it. This is a

semidetached castle. Simon and his family live in one half. The other

is let as holiday accommodation. Simon's ancestors, friends of kings,

would never had suspected their home would, one day, have to accept

paying guests, but that's the reality. We were with Wallace, at

his time - the family and Wallace's mother were close relations. We were

at Bannockburn, we were at Flodden. It sounds as if the family have

always been a part of Scottish history, like a line of thread

running through the tartan of Scotland's history. That's a lovely

way of putting it, yes. We've been there at all the major points in

time, I think. Where do you want to break history? Simon works hard and

he thinks his family is well-placed to go on. There's a trout fishery to

run. The servants' quarters are now a boarding kennel. He'll even sell

you a cardboard coffin if you want to be laid to rest in Craufurdland's

environmentally friendly burial ground.

My time here is almost over, but the dirty jobs keep on coming for Simon.

He's putting on his waders, but this laird's not going fly fishing. Simon

has some heavy-duty cleaning to do - preparing for a mud race.

People come from all over central Scotland to run through your mud.

They do, yes. And spend good money along the way? Yes - it's another

revenue stream for us. Horrible things in there - em... Quite

repulsive. Think of a traditional Scottish landowner and the chances

are you won't think of someone like Simon. But his family have been here

since 1245 and there are those who would argue people like Simon

shouldn't be able to inherit an estate like this one. I have to say,

after seeing just how hard he's worked through the course of today,

I'm asking myself "Why not?" This debate isn't just about who owns the

land - it's also about what big landowners do with it. Those lucky

enough to own tens of thousands of acres have huge influence on the

land and the people that live on it and how they use that influence can

be crucial. I've left the southwest behind and travelled to one of the

wildest corners of the northeast. This is the Cabrach and Glenfiddach

estate. It's remote. It's beautiful. But the local councillor here warns

the community is in crisis. I represent a very large rural area

and this is probably the one at the furthest edges of decline. What

could this place look like in the future if you don't achieve the kind

of changes you want to see? Well, the few houses that are left will be

gone and unoccupied. There just will be nobody here but sheep and maybe a

few grouse, and that's about it. This glen has lost three quarters of

its population over the last century. For the last 35 years, the

landowner here has been Christopher Moran. He's a wealthy, self-made

man, worth ?264 million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. And

he's another of the 432 landowners who own half the privately held land

in Scotland. He's a noted philanthropist, but he was also the

first man to be banned from Lloyds of London.

Mr Moran is usually very keen to protect his privacy, but today, he's

agreed to be interviewed for the first time about his running of the

estate. First of all, I couldn't resist asking if he really was worth

more than a quarter of a billion pounds. Uh... Perhaps those figures

are true, perhaps they're not. I really...don't pay much attention to

it. Why did you choose to come here, buy land and invest in this

community? I walked pretty well every hill in Scotland, north,

south, east and west... ..as a young man, and loved Scotland. I love the

Highlands. Things here at the Cabrach have been in decline since

the start of the 20th century. What was a thriving community has seen

its population ebb away. I want to know, has Christopher Moran done

enough for the people who live on his land? There is so much that a

landowner can do, just by being here and the sort of efforts that he puts

into the surrounding estate and the community - the jobs, the housing

that can be provided here. I'm afraid we're just not getting any of

that support. We could rebuild this community. There are lots of rural

areas that, with the right landowner and their support, have been able to

bring themselves back to life and I'm afraid this is just not

happening here. But is it fair or realistic to

expect a single landowner to resolve a century's worth of decline? One of

Christopher Moran's tenant farmers told me the answer is "no." My

experience is, I've never had any problems with him at all. It's

inevitable, what's happened was going to happen anyway, I'd say.

Does the laird always get the blame? Basically, yes, I would say - yes,

yes. The estate is littered with

abandoned houses. What it needs are homes and people. Mr Moran's answer

is a wind farm - the neighbours have already built one. He's spent years

battling opposition to his plans. Now they've got the green light. The

scheme should make him even richer but it'll also provide enough cash

to refurbish local houses and build new, affordable, homes. But it will

also provide enough cash to rebuild local houses and create new homes.

The reality for the community here is it's Mr Moran's vision, or

nothing. Is it right that someone with your

financial backing can come to a community like this, buy the land

and exert so much influence over the community? Well, you see, I

would...I would put it back to you the other way around - that if you

don't have landowners such as myself who are thinking about the

regeneration, the sustainable regeneration of these types of

estate - remember this is 1,100 feet over sea level. The type of

conditions that we have to experience in the winter are

extreme. So the sort of investment that's necessary to bring about

sustainable regeneration is substantial. If you end up splitting

up estates like this, where is that type of investment going to come

from? Where are the running losses of estates like this going to come

from over many, many, many decades? It's time to head south again, but

something's troubling me. The message I'm getting from landowners

large and small is that owning land doesn't make you rich.

In fact, operating an estate has sounded like a kind of public

service, provided by benefactors with deep pockets. But is that the

whole story? We asked the leading estate agents

Knight Frank to pull together some numbers for us and they show that

investing in land is a very lucrative proposition indeed.

Money invested in land performed four times better than the stock

market over the last ten years. That's almost as good as gold. And

agricultural land - unlike most property - isn't itself taxed.

Profits from any activity on the land are, and taxes are paid when

land is sold or transferred. But exemptions mean taxes on sale or

transfer often don't apply - which leads to some very odd quirks.

Anders Holch Polsen, a Danish multimillionaire, is now Scotland's

second largest private landowner. He owns 160,000 acres. Danish nationals

pay tax on all the land they own, regardless of where it is. That

means Anders Holch Polsen is paying a tax on his land and property in

Scotland to the Danish Government. Put another way, tax revenue raised

here is paying for schools and hospitals in Denmark.

What it does is it exposes the fact that we've never really properly

thought about how we govern land, how land is owned, who owns it, how

we should tax it. We've never thought about that in a coherent

way. You know, land in Britain has predominantly been an issue about

class politics, actually, and about the...the haves and the have-nots.

Britain is a country that's never really had a revolutionary moment so

we haven't done what the French did. And... It makes me feel we're not

living in a modern country. No-one's expecting a revolution. But

landowners are under growing pressure from MPs. They've launched

an investigation into whether landowners pay enough tax and

deserve the agricultural subsidies they receive. The man leading that

investigation isn't known for pulling his punches.

We want to clarify whether or not the amount of money that big

landowners, rich landowners get is justified, whether or not they make

a fair contribution by paying the complete amount of tax that they

should and see whether or not the balance is right. I think there is

an extent to which the big landowners see themselves as being

in Scotland, but not really of Scotland, and that they're above it

all. They don't really like the oiks or the rough coming along and asking

questions. They're willing enough to take public money but they're not

really keen on having the public question the privileges and rights

that they have. 'Landowners and farmers are no different to anyone

else.' They pay tax where tax is due in this country, but of course they

have tax planning, much like you or I would do, and that's normal and

it's a good business practice. You're under intense scrutiny at the

moment, the parliamentary Select Committee are looking at this.

You're going to lose this argument, aren't you? No, we're not, no. And,

you know, I'm all in favour of scrutiny because we've got a good

and very positive story to tell, so bring it on.

It was perhaps a little surprising to hear Doug being quite so relaxed

about the possibility of wide-ranging changes to the tax

system, because if I was a big landowner, I'd know I have,

potentially, a lot to lose. North, south, east, now west.

There's one place I have to visit if I'm going to understand why this

debate really matters - to hear how changes in land ownership can change

the way people live their lives. That place is the Isle of Eigg. It's

almost 20 years now since the islanders made history and the

headlines. In 1997, the island was owned by a German conceptual artist

called Maruma. The islanders launched an appeal and bought him

out. Today is a giant leap for Eigg and its people and hopefully another

small step towards the future of land ownership in Scotland - thank

you. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE.

It was a huge step for a tiny community and, as it proved, for the

whole country. That, in part, led the Scottish Government to

legislate, giving communities across Scotland the right to buy and

creating a fund to help them. Sarah Boden left the island when she

was just a child - and now she's back. I came back four years ago,

and prior to that, I was a music journalist on the Observer newspaper

in London. Now I farm this side of the island with my parents. We took

over the tenancy of my uncle's farm. Her partner, Johnny, has come with

her. Bizarre as it may seem, he's busy running his own record label

from a caravan on Eigg. Johnny and Sarah are just two of the young

people who the buyout has brought to Eigg. I came up here and fell in

love with the lady and with the place - the island itself. It's

going to be a Wendy house, with a roof like that. Next spring, they'll

build a house here. It's the community buyout which has made that

possible. The trust which owns the island is providing the land they'll

need. That would never have happened under a laird, definitely. So what

does the future hold? Will you be starting a family here? Uh... Well,

actually, I'm already six months gone. Hopefully, yeah. And I think

that's... There's much more younger people here who have started

families and it means that your kid's not going to be going to

school with one other person, which...so, yeah... It's a definite

priority for us, of which I'm reminded most days. So big changes

ahead for Johnny and Sarah. But life has also changed for the rest of the

islanders. The buyout allowed them to build a renewable energy grid to

power their homes. It doesn't generate millions of pounds in

profits, but it does keep the lights on. Suddenly, you know, we've got

24-hour power which...huge amount of difference.

Until they actually switched it on, they didn't know that it was going

to work. Literally - the electrical engineers went, "Oh, it might, it

might not." Anyway, it did, much to everybody's...not surprise, but...

This was the biggest project we tackled since the buyout. But

fantastic, brilliant, the difference it's made to everybody. If you can

imagine before, with a generator, you only used it for a few hours a

day, really expensive, real hassle getting diesel here to the island,

and suddenly, we've got 24-hour power, which...huge amount of

difference. Could you have done this under another model of land

ownership? I doubt it very much. That's all very well, but is Eigg

really a template for other parts of Scotland? Is it a realistic

alternative to large land holdings? There are those who would argue

"You're a bunch of old hippies "doing this at the taxpayers'

expense." SHE LAUGHS.

Are they wrong? I mean, I might be one. But...there's a lot of people

here who'd be very offended by that. We certainly don't... We don't use a

lot of taxpayers' money, that's for sure. I mean, we bought Eigg. Eigg

cost 1.5 million and only 17,000 of that came from the public purse. The

rest of it was by donations from the general public.

There's a problem, though. Community buyout has largely run into the sand

- a few highly motivated communities have done it, but is it really

possible elsewhere? There's an estate on sale in Angus, 5,000

acres, ?29 million. There's an estate in Argyll for sale, ?11

million. There's a farm in Berwickshire for sale at ?8.5

million. The total fund in the Scottish Land Fund to buy land on

behalf of communities is six for the whole of Scotland. So we've got to

do something about land values, to bring the value of land down to

affordable prices, essentially to its economic value. Strip out the

whole of the speculative gain that people expect to make in the land

market and return land to its economic value, then you'll have all

sorts of people - not just communities, I mean, individuals.

This is the big revolution, is to get many, many more individuals

owning land. I set out to meet the men who own

Scotland. That's what I've done and they've told me they're doing a good

job. Their message? "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." But no-one's

been able to explain to me how the system we've inherited is fair.

In just a few months' time, ministers will receive a report from

a team of experts who are studying land reform. We're told to expect

radical proposals - proposals which could change Scotland forever.

I am confident that the land reform review group will come forward with

radical proposals. That's what we've charged them to do and I'm keen to

see what they come forward with in April. My party genuinely believes

that there should be a fair distribution of land, that

communities should have access to land to fulfil their aspirations and

that's something I think we're sending out a vision as to what we

want to achieve. And, if in decades to come, we still have a pattern of

land ownership across Scotland - certainly rural Scotland, where our

landscape is dominated by big, traditional sporting estates - will

that be a failure of government? I think if we don't see a fairer

distribution of land, then we at parliament, we will have failed the

people of Scotland. Ministers are being cautious - the

process towards land reform is at a very sensitive stage. But it would

be a mistake to forget that within the SNP, there is a deep-seated

desire to see change. Change is coming. We just don't know what form

that change will take. And I'm not sure the Government does either.