Millionaire landowner pledges 'no eviction' policy as third Scottish estate bought up

Dr Jeremy Leggett, chief executive of Highlands Rewilding, has made the pledges following the £10 million purchase of the Tayvallich Estate in Argyll, which has been bought for the purpose of nature restoration and rewilding to improve biodiversity in the face of the climate crisis.

The purchase of the estate, which is home to more than 200 people, has led to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tayvallich Initiative, a community body that pursued its own purchase of the land.

The agreement includes a commitment to no evictions of existing tenants, an undertaking to maintain at least the number of jobs on the estate and the application of the Rural Housing Burden on any plots or properties sold to protect them as primary residences in an area of high second-home ownership. Meanwhile, parts of the estate will be sold “at cost” to the community.

Dr Leggett, a former scientific advisor to Greenpeace, said the agreement was the first of its kind. It comes amid increasing concern over the lack of community benefit of land and property sales for nature restoration given the prevalence of wealthy and corporate buyers, with high demand pushing up land prices.

Dr Leggett said: “Community engagement is central to all the work we undertake and forms an integral part to the success of nature regeneration and community prosperity. We’re delighted to have reached a conclusion with the MoU and look forward to our ongoing work with Tayvallich Initiative and the wider community to develop the best practice in Scotland.”

Martin Mellor, chair of Tayvallich Initiative, said the MoU had been “warmly welcomed” by residents when it was presented to a community meeting back in April, and the work of Highland Rewilding had “great potential” for nature restoration and regeneration, community prosperity and repopulation.

Tayvallich was bought using a mix of private finance, a loan from the UK Infrastructure Bank and a crowdfunder that sold around £1m of shares in the company to ‘citizen rewilders’.

Ailsa Raeburn, director of Community Land Scotland, said the MoU was "broadly welcomed", although concerns existed about the overall financial model used to buy the estate.

She said: “Under this model, there are still no local owners and a lot of the shareholders come outwith of Scotland. While it is not our preferred model, what is happening at Tayvallich is to be welcomed and we hope that other landowners take cognisance of the way Highlands Rewilding is working with the community.

"Our principal concern is everything is still subject to the bank approving individual deals. We are talking about quite significant loans and if Highlands Rewilding aren’t able to repay the loans, then decisions on the estate will be taken in London without interest in the Scottish context. That is our real concern."

She added: "You have to give Jeremy Leggett the credit that he has put a huge amount of thought into how this will work for the community and I think he really does want to do the right thing.”