management of the Crown Estate : Eighth report of session 2009-10, Vol. 2: Oral and written Evidence

This report examines the Crown Estate Commissioner's management of the Crown property, rights and interests which make up the Crown Estate in Scotland. The Commissioner's operations in Scotland can be split into two categories: ancient possessions/responsibilities and modern activities relating to the buying, selling and management of property and land. The evidence identified major issues, particularly in relation to the seabed and the foreshore: including lack of accountability, lack of communication and consultation with local communities, the inappropriateness of the Commissioner's remit for its responsibilities in the marine environment, the cash leakage from local economies and other adverse impacts. There were no such problems in relation to the management of urban and rural estate. The Commissioner's responsibilities for the seabed, the foreshore and other ancient rights in Scotland should be devolved then decentralized as far as possible. Devolution to Holyrood should be conditional upon agreement between the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Scottish Government on how such a scheme of subsidiarity to local authority and local community levels should be implemented. This report also sets out how different arrangements could be made for each of the Scottish Crown property rights and responsibilities. Further consultation should proceed on the basis of proposals set out by the Highlands and Islands local authorities, which provides a clear framework on which to base discussion.

How public land has been stolen from us. Much has been written about Britain's trailblazing post-1970s privatization program, but the biggest privatization of them all has until now escaped scrutiny: the privatization of land. Since Margaret Thatcher took power in 1979, and hidden from the public eye, about 10 per cent of the entire British land mass, including some of its most valuable real estate, has passed from public to private hands. Forest land, defence land, health service land and above all else local authority land- for farming and school sports, for recreation and housing - has been sold off en masse. Why? How? And with what social, economic and political consequences? The New Enclosure provides the first ever study of this profoundly significant phenomenon, situating it as a centrepiece of neoliberalism in Britain and as a successor programme to the original eighteenth-century enclosures. With more public land still slated for disposal, the book identifies the stakes and asks what, if anything, can and should be done.

Making local energy futures, from marine energy to hydrogen fuel, at the edge of the world. The islands of Orkney, off the northern coast of Scotland, are closer to the Arctic Circle than to London. Surrounded by fierce seas and shrouded by clouds and mist, the islands seem to mark the edge of the known world. And yet they are a center for energy technology innovation, from marine energy to hydrogen fuel networks, attracting the interest of venture capitalists and local communities. In this book, Laura Watts tells a story of making energy futures at the edge of the world. Orkney, Watts tells us, has been making technology for six thousand years, from arrowheads and stone circles to wave and tide energy prototypes. Artifacts and traces of all the ages—Stone, Bronze, Iron, Viking, Silicon—are visible everywhere. The islanders turned to energy innovation when forced to contend with an energy infrastructure they had outgrown. Today, Orkney is home to the European Marine Energy Centre, established in 2003. There are about forty open-sea marine energy test facilities in the world, many of which draw on Orkney expertise. The islands generate more renewable energy than they use, are growing hydrogen fuel and electric car networks, and have hundreds of locally owned micro wind turbines and a decade-old smart grid. Mixing storytelling and ethnography, empiricism and lyricism, Watts tells an Orkney energy saga—an account of how the islands are creating their own low-carbon future in the face of the seemingly impossible. The Orkney Islands, Watts shows, are playing a long game, making energy futures for another six thousand years.

This incisive book provides a timely and magisterial analysis of offshore wind licensing processes and their regulation from a global perspective. It not only explores the concept of licensing and the governance frameworks and backgrounds in which licensing rules are developed, but also looks at the crucial legal challenges facing the licensing of offshore wind farms that regulators, legislatures, operators, and legal practitioners are likely to encounter.