Independence for who?

Scotland is a country of around 19,460,000 acre. The approximate population of Scotland, going by the most recent mid-year  population estimate, is 5,220,100. All told, if the  land was divided equally between everyone here,  this would give us about 3.72 acres each.

What we do know  suggests that of the rural land, which comprises  about 18,924,516 acres (i.e. 97.4 per cent of  Scotland) a total of 15,722,287 acres, 83.1 per cent  of this, is held privately. Of this land, 60 per cent  is owned by just 969 people, with the average  holding of 9,735 acres. To put that in perspective, this tiny minority  (less than  0.001 per cent) owns an average of 2,616 times  as much as an equal distribution would provide. Twenty five  per cent of estates over 1,000 acres have been  held in the same family for over 400 years. In the  Highlands, 50 per cent haven’t been exposed for  sale since World War II.

Buccleuch  Estates, a company founded in 1923 of which the  Duke of Buccleuch is the Chairman, own 241,887 acres. In the Highlands over 50 per  cent of the area covered in ‘sporting estates’,  primarily for hunting. These are divided between  340 estates, which typically range from 5,000 to  8,000 acres. Seafield and Strathspey Estates, owned  by the Earl of Seafield, report an annual revenue  turnover of £2.8 million from Cullen Farm, and  £1.4 million from the Straphspey Estates, which  is clearly quite a profitable business to inherit.

The Sunday  Herald, revealed that between 2000 and  2004, around £115 million was handed out to the  one hundred largest beneficiaries in Scotland.  This included, for example, Moray Estates, run  by a company owned by the Earl of Moray and  comprising of 33,143 acres, who received around  £2.2 million. Cullen farm, a farm on the Seafield  Estates mentioned above, received just under  £1.9 million. Southesk  Farms near Brechin, owned by the Earl of  Southesk, David Carnegie, got £1.5 million, while  Dunecht Home Farm near Aberdeen, belonging to Viscount Cowdray, got nearly £1.4 million.

Subsidies are also helping to ensure that large landowners benefit from the move to renewable
energy. An example of  this involves the Duke of Roxburgh, who owns  55,136 acres. The Times reported in 2010, his  plan to develop a 48-turbine wind farm “would  generate an estimated £30m a year, shared with  developers. About £17m of this would come from  subsidies from consumers.

Over 22  per cent and perhaps as much as 25 per cent of the privately owned rural land in Scotland is held  in some form of offshore or beneficial ownership  where, to varying degrees,the beneficiaries are  unknown and tax is being avoided.  In 1995 the  Duke of Buccleuch had his wealth re-evaluated  from £300 million to £40 million in the Sunday  Times Rich List because his estate was owned  by a company in which he did not own any  shares. The shares, it turns out, are owned by four Edinburgh lawyers and are worth £4. The money is ultimately held in a trust, and the beneficiaries are unknown.  In an  investigation of 500 estates and  estimated that the annual loss of tax revenue was  around £72 million due to offshore ownership,  noting that: “The true figure would be much more  if it were possible to survey all of Scotland”.

This land is definitely not your land!

Taken from this website here