Ariane Burgess: How to start to reverse decline of Scotland's rural populations

Some of the common themes that came up in conversations with people I met were the provision of adequate and affordable housing and public transport infrastructure, as well as a sense that we have far too many emptied places, empty homes.

Depopulation is an issue in many parts of Scotland. The legacy of the clearances is still felt, of course, and present in the way land is owned, managed and used, but there are modern challenges too.

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The fact the population is ageing is an issue all over Scotland, with a fall in the working-age population, and it has serious implications for our services – that is especially true in the Highlands and Islands.

The outward migration of young people is a well-kent phenomenon in many parts of the region, although there have been signs in the last decade that attitudes are starting to shift, with surveys suggesting more young people are considering a future in the region. The University of the Highlands and Islands for one has done a phenomenal job of bringing opportunities closer to home.

However, the structures in place to enable that change have yet to follow. We still have a land ownership and planning system that embeds the status quo and stands in the way of bringing people back to emptied places.

The rapid growth of Airbnb-style holiday rentals has had a major impact on the availability of homes and it’s clear the journey towards proper regulation of this market still has some way to go. Licencing alone may not tackle the fact that a real lack of affordable housing in so many places plays a direct role in depopulation, especially younger people.

Second homes can sometimes be seen as an even worse problem, as it leaves properties empty for long periods of the year in the heart of communities crying out for housing.

The islands I have visited this summer each have their own challenges too. Community land trusts face obstacles because even with funding and land, difficult to access sites can increase house building costs significantly. It’s clear we need to recognise that funding for housing on the mainland is not adequate for building affordable and social housing on the islands. And we also need to go beyond thinking about just building housing, to taking a holistic approach to the way we think about building places.

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Places designed by the people who live there supported by public transport infrastructure, schools and public services will be places that people want to stay and move into. In the coming years, communities have the opportunity to design their places and begin to think about how everyone living there can meet their needs.

Ultimately, this is about planning, a subject I thought very dry before I was elected to this job. That is because it is often seen through a prism of the “corporate objectives” of a local authority, or as a thing foisted upon a community by a profit-driven private developer.

Too often people’s only experience of the planning system is to object to something which will diminish their neighbourhood or village. That’s not good enough, because it is often a disempowering experience where even if objections succeed, the developer persists until they get their way.

There was an opportunity during the last parliamentary term to reform the planning system, but like so many bills, it was watered down from its initial policy ambition, just like other measures designed to empower communities. We still see the interests of developers and landowners take precedent over those of the people who have to live with the consequences of decisions.

Across Europe, things are very different. Looking at continental community-sized local government and widespread communal ownership of land, it’s clear we have a long way to go.

Fundamentally this is about where power lies. Greens believe communities should have the means to shape their own future and deliver the solutions needed to meet local challenges, as well as the global climate crisis.

The new planning framework is a real opportunity to change things, and depopulation has been identified as a key challenge in the supporting research.

People will only get excited about the planning system when it works for them, not done to them. When ownership of land is a real possibility, not the pursuit of the impossibly wealthy.

There has been far too slow progress on this. Putting people back into emptied spaces requires giving them that power to create sustainable and resilient communities.