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.”
READ MORE: Fury at plan to ‘make nature pay’ for climate crisis in Scotland
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.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel