School of Social & Political Sciences

David Adams, Ian Mactaggart Chair of Property and Urban Studies, has been appointed as one of twelve expert advisers to the Scottish Government’s Land Reform Review Group, established by the First Minister, Alex Salmond MSP, in July 2012.

The Group has been asked by the Scottish Government to identify how further land reform can: 

• enable more people in rural and urban Scotland to have a stake in the ownership, governance, management and use of land, which will lead to a greater diversity of land ownership, and ownership types, in Scotland;
• assist with the acquisition and management of land (and also land assets) by communities, to make stronger, more resilient, and independent communities which have an even greater stake in their development;
• generate, support, promote, and deliver new relationships between land, people, economy and environment in Scotland.

Professor Adams has a longstanding interest and expertise in urban land ownership, having undertaken extensive research on this issue for both the ESRC and others. While the groundbreaking Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 had a particular rural focus, Professor Adams’ appointment as an adviser to the Land Reform Review Group reflects increasing interest within Scotland in applying some of the lessons of rural land reform to urban areas.

For more details on the work of the Land Reform Review Group, visit www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Review/land-reform.

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First published: 23 October 2012