Interposed leases
As I have previously mentioned, interposed leases are the device whereby the landowner can ensure that any community buyout does not get its hands on the income from windfarms.
The Courts have now decided that they are legal, in the circumstances that arise in Pairc, and the impact is clear.
The land is owned by PC who gives a lease of the sites for the turbine bases to PR, who then receives the income for the windfarm. If the community buyout happens then the crofters will acquire PC only, and will have no right to the income generated by PR, nor can they revoke or vary the leases.
The fact that PC and PR are owned by the same person is irrelevant; he will keep the profits, even is he loses the land.
But what value is there in the crofters acquiring the land without the rights to operate the windfarm? Virtually none.
How long before the landowners hive off all the other profitable elements of the estate such as salmon beats, in order to defeat community buy-outs? Answer: very quickly, as the possibility of the legislation being changed to stop interposed leases must be on the horizon.
The Courts have now decided that they are legal, in the circumstances that arise in Pairc, and the impact is clear.
The land is owned by PC who gives a lease of the sites for the turbine bases to PR, who then receives the income for the windfarm. If the community buyout happens then the crofters will acquire PC only, and will have no right to the income generated by PR, nor can they revoke or vary the leases.
The fact that PC and PR are owned by the same person is irrelevant; he will keep the profits, even is he loses the land.
But what value is there in the crofters acquiring the land without the rights to operate the windfarm? Virtually none.
How long before the landowners hive off all the other profitable elements of the estate such as salmon beats, in order to defeat community buy-outs? Answer: very quickly, as the possibility of the legislation being changed to stop interposed leases must be on the horizon.
1 comment:
So you end up with areas of the Outer Hebrides which residents can't use, or live on, and they receive no benefit for this loss. Hang on, isn't there an old name for this? Ah yes; "Highland Clearances".
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