The new body consists of a consortium of local land trusts

‘Community Land Outer Hebrides’ (‘CLOH’), a consortium of community land trusts based in the Outer Hebrides, will seek to build on the strengths of community land ownership in the area.

Around three quarters of the population in the Outer Hebrides live on community-owned land, and as a result, the area is considered to be ‘leading’ within the sector of community land ownership. With impressive growth in land ownership by the hectare, and the remarkable success of the land-owning trusts in increasing their asset value and creating numerous jobs, various unique opportunities have sprung up as a result.

Land trusts in the Outer Hebrides are keen to explore those opportunities further.

A series of network meetings was set up in 2016 for trusts to share best practice and knowledge, from which the formal consortium has arisen.

Lisa Maclean, Chair of ‘CLOH’ and Chief Executive of Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn commented: “There are great benefits to increased collaborative working and exploration of the unique opportunities that are available to the community land sector. The willingness of land trusts to work together started long before the formal set up of ‘CLOH’”.

Sally Reynolds, ‘CLOH’ board member and Development Manager, Urras Oighreachd Chàrlabhaigh, went on to say: “Collaborative working has always been part of how land trusts operate. This next step to establish ‘CLOH’ is a natural progression. Land trusts share many strategic and operational issues, and the network has already provided many efficiencies.”

David Cameron, Community Land Scotland commented: “The formation of Community Land Outer Hebrides represents a very important step in community land development by bringing together and emphasizing the importance of the development staff who work day-in,day-out on projects which reflect the wishes of their community, whilst retaining the individual characteristics of an area, working collectively on local challenges and with Community Land Scotland.