ENVIRONMENTALIST Jeremy Leggett has vowed to persevere with his vision to allow ordinary Scots to own their own land despite a setback for his crowdfunding plans.

Crowdfunding platforms have so far refused to let the former Greenpeace director use their sites to launch a “mass land ownership company”.

Leggett, who bought Bunloit at Drumnadrochit and Beldorney near Huntly after selling his solar panel business, wants to offer Scots a chance to buy land for rewilding for as little as £10.

“I am no longer going to be the owner of Beldorney – it’s going to be sold to the company at a fair market rate and the new owners, including as many Highlanders and Scots as possible, will benefit,” said Leggett, who wants 50% of the board to be women, with the majority of board members coming from the Highlands.

“If the nation keeps being sold in large lots to the absentee ultra-rich, not only does land inequality grow, but we make it more difficult to implement the land-management changes we know we need if society is to survive climate meltdown and biodiversity collapse.”

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He wants the 865-acre estate of Beldorney to be turned into a “Forest of Hope” comprising more than 250,000 native broadleaf species planted by “citizen rewilders”.

Leggett hopes a £2 million share offer will give ordinary Scots, particularly those living near the estate, the chance to own their own land instead of it being bought by speculators hoping to gain kudos and make money from carbon-offsetting schemes.

However, the Financial Conduct Authority ranks projects such as Leggett’s as high risk and suitable only for wealthy investors. Crowdfunding platforms Crowdcube and Seedrs have rejected his bid.

“They are saying it is too risky and too complicated but really the sad truth is, like so many financial institutions, they are worried about anything that smacks of change as they do so well on the status quo,” said Leggett. “Why bother with some frontier effort to create a mechanism for not-so-affluent people to own a slug of land in the country where they live?”

Pledging to persevere with the project, Leggett said: “At the moment I am struggling to get crowdfunding platforms to agree to make retail offerings to the less affluent, so it is still the concern of family offices and affluent players, but we want a broad base because I believe we will never beat the climate crisis or diversity crisis without the involvement of local communities.”