IN Brief:
- Ministers plan to consolidate Scotland’s compulsory purchase legislation into a single Act during the current parliamentary term.
- Proposed changes include electronic notices, common data standards, stronger land-information powers, and more flexible acquisition.
- The practical effect will depend on whether the new legislation reduces avoidable delay while preserving challenge and compensation rights.
The Scottish Government plans to replace Scotland’s fragmented compulsory purchase legislation with a single statute intended to make land acquisition for development and infrastructure faster, clearer, and more predictable. Ministers have committed to bring forward legislation during the current parliamentary term following consultation on changes covering digital notices, information gathering, compensation, and more flexible acquisition powers.
Compulsory purchase allows public bodies and other acquiring authorities to obtain land where a project is judged to be in the public interest and agreement cannot be reached voluntarily. The powers can be used for transport, regeneration, housing, utilities, and other infrastructure, but Scotland’s legal framework has developed through layers of legislation rather than one modern Act.
The proposed reform would consolidate the law into a single Compulsory Purchase Act and allow authorities more flexibility over the interest they acquire, rather than requiring permanent ownership in every case. Digital service of notices and documents would be expanded, supported by common data standards, while ministers also plan to review compensation rules to ensure that they remain fair to owners and acquiring authorities.
The consultation ran from 19 September to 19 December 2025 and attracted 107 responses. Support for several procedural changes was strong: 82 of 84 respondents answering the consolidation question backed a single statute, 69 of 71 supported electronic service where the affected party agrees in writing, and 58 of 65 supported a general power to require information on ownership, occupation, and other land interests.
Land information sits on the critical path
Compulsory purchase is rarely the most visible element of a construction programme, but unresolved land interests can stop a project regardless of how advanced its design or funding becomes. Fragmented ownership, unknown interests, and protracted negotiation create programme risk before a contractor reaches site, particularly on linear infrastructure and regeneration schemes assembled from many plots.
The proposed information powers address one of those early-stage problems. Authorities need accurate ownership and occupation data to prepare orders, serve notices, assess compensation, and identify parties whose interests may be affected. Incomplete records can generate delay or challenge later in the process, so a clearer power to obtain that information could improve the quality of the land schedule before formal acquisition begins.
Digitalisation is another practical change rather than an administrative detail. Formal service requirements still matter because procedural errors can delay or undermine an order, and paper-heavy systems create additional handling where many parties are involved. The consultation proposal retains consent for electronic service, recognising that digital communication can improve speed and auditability without removing a paper route for people who need it.
Compensation will be more difficult to reform. The government’s current position is to review the rules rather than announce a new valuation model, and the existing principle remains that affected owners should be compensated fairly. Changes around market value, planning assumptions, and hope value can alter both acquisition cost and the financial position of landowners, making detailed drafting more contentious than the consolidation of procedure.
The wider reform programme also leaves compulsory sale and compulsory lease mechanisms under consideration. Those tools could give authorities additional options for bringing vacant or persistently underused property back into productive use, but the government has not committed to introducing them alongside the main compulsory purchase legislation.
For project promoters, the value of a single Act will depend on how far it reduces avoidable procedural uncertainty rather than simply relocating existing rules. A consolidated statute should make the legal route easier to navigate, but authorities will still need a robust public-interest case, adequate consultation, defensible valuation evidence, and a delivery programme capable of using the land once acquired.
The reform also has a resource dimension. More effective compulsory purchase depends on local authorities and other acquiring bodies having access to legal, surveying, valuation, and project-management expertise. A simpler statute can remove some friction, but it cannot compensate for weak project definition or under-resourced land assembly teams.
Legislation during the current parliamentary term will determine how much of the consultation package becomes law. For construction programmes, the practical test will come earlier than groundbreaking: whether promoters can identify interests, serve the right parties, resolve compensation, and secure land with fewer avoidable delays before procurement and mobilisation begin. That is where statutory simplification will be tested against real project timetables.
