The May 2007 Scottish Parliament election resulted, for the first time, in a Scottish National Party minority government. The first term of SNP government was marked by a lack of action on land reform. However, following re-election in 2011, this time with a parliamentary majority, land reform returned to the government agenda with the Scottish Government establishing the Land Reform Review Group in 2012 and First Minister Alex Salmond in 2013 announcing a target of seeing 1 million acres of land in community ownership by 2020. ^[1][2] The Land Reform Review Group was given the task of identifying how land reform would enable rural and urban communities to have a stake in the ownership, governance, management and use of land, assist in the acquisition and management of that land and promote new relationships between land, people, economy and environment in Scotland. Its final report, published in May 2014, recommended policies to modernise and diversify land ownership in Scotland and encourage sustainable development, some of which would form the basis of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 and Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016. During this period the Land Registration etc. (Scotland) Act 2012 introduced changes to the conveyancing system in Scotland, with the aim of having all land in Scotland registered under the Land Register of Scotland within 10 years. Prior to the act, entry of land into the register would be prompted by a sale but other transfers of land would not prompt first entry. The act expanded the triggers for first entry to include any transfer of property or the signing of a long lease in order to accelerate the transition from the antiquated deed based Register of Sassines to the modernised map based Land Register.^[3]

The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, marked the first major piece of land reform legislation to be passed under the SNP government. Its provisions covered different areas pertaining to community empowerment and public participation in policy and planning, including several related directly to land.^[4] The most important of these was the extension of the Community Right to Buy to communities of any size, including, for the first time, those in urban areas. It also introduced a new community right to buy land which is abandoned, neglected or causing harm to the environmental wellbeing of the community. Similar to the 2003 Act's crofting community right to buy, this new right does not require a willing seller. Rather, Scottish ministers may compel a landowner to sell to communities with a registered interest, if they deem the sale likely to contribute to sustainable local development.

Further provisions granted community bodies the right to request to purchase, lease, manage or use land and buildings held by local authorities, Scottish ministers and other Scottish public bodies, of which relevant authorities are required to create and maintain a publicly available register. The Act reformed Common Good Property, requiring local authorities to establish and maintain registers of all common good property held by them and to inform and consult local community bodies before any change of use or disposal of common good property. Allotments, updates and simplifies legislation on allotments.

It also set a requirement for local authorities to take steps to provide allotments should waiting lists exceed certain lengths and strengthened protections for allotments, regulated rents and allowed tenants to sell food produced on allotments on a not for profit basis. The act required that local authorities develop food growing strategies, including the identification of land that may be used as allotment sites or potential land for community cultivation.

Following a public consultation on the future of land reform in Scotland during 2014-15, 2016 saw the passing of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act through parliament. ^[5] The most radical and controversial provision of the act was the creation of the Community Right to Buy for Sustainable Development. This permitted Scottish ministers to approve the purchase of privately owned land by a community body with a registered interest. Like the Crofting Community Right to Buy and the Community Right to Buy abandoned or derelict land, the Community Right to Buy for Sustainable Development does not require a willing seller but allows ministers to compel landowners to sell if they decide that the sale will further sustainable development in the area.^[6] Community bodies may also register an interest in allowing a 3rd party to purchase land on the same basis.

This new community right to buy was not the only provision of the Act. The Act required that the Scottish Government produce a ‘Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement’, setting out its objectives for land reform and to establish a Scottish Land Commission to take forward the land reform process and prepare a strategic plan, for the approval of Scottish ministers.^[7] Other provisions of the act included new regulations to require persons who control land to be identified, with information obtained to appear in the Land Register of Scotland; the removal of sporting rights exemption from rates, which are to be re-valued; and further powers for Scottish Natural Heritage to control deer management. It also makes provision for notice and consultation where core paths are to be amended.^[8]