Crown Estate Scotland - Corporate plan consultation response

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 The Square Grant­own on Spey PH26 3HG

T: 01479 873 535

07 August 2025

Crown Estate Scot­land – Cor­por­ate Plan Consultation

Dear Crown Estate Scotland,

There is sig­ni­fic­ant over­lap between many areas of the Crown Estate Scotland’s Vis­ion, Pur­pose and Mis­sions with the deliv­ery of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. The Park Author­ity wel­comes all oppor­tun­it­ies to strengthen the stra­tegic con­nec­tions with the Park Plan which all pub­lic bod­ies have a duty to help deliv­er. There is an oppor­tun­ity to more clearly align the work on Glen­liv­et Estate with the Park Plan and the five stra­tegic pri­or­it­ies set out in the draft cor­por­ate plan.

As a sig­ni­fic­ant landown­er in the Park, and espe­cially as a pub­lic land hold­ing, col­lab­or­a­tion and stra­tegic align­ment is key. Our com­ments are there­fore focussed on how we can best work togeth­er to deliv­er the vis­ion and over­arch­ing strategy that describes how all those with a respons­ib­il­ity for the Nation­al Park will work togeth­er on region­al and nation­al priorities.

There is an oppor­tun­ity for Crown Estate Scot­land to be an exem­plar in demon­strat­ing how pub­lic land can help mit­ig­ate, adapt and build resi­li­ence to the twin crises through both nature based and infra­struc­ture solu­tions. The draft cor­por­ate plan clearly demon­strates the role CES plays in renew­ables, it would be good to see a sim­il­ar recog­ni­tion of the nature- based solu­tions it can demon­strate on its rur­al land holdings.

The cor­por­ate plan could high­light how pub­licly owned land can lead the way in reach­ing 30 x 30 tar­gets and being act­ive par­ti­cipants in the devel­op­ment of loc­al and region­al Nature Net­works. Recog­nising the ambi­tion to help deliv­er this nation­al agenda in the draft cor­por­ate plan would facil­it­ate their integ­ra­tion into estate or land man­age­ment plans and

The Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy states the aim to ​‘halt nature loss by 2030’. The draft cor­por­ate plan could reflect this lan­guage more dir­ectly, rather than using the phrase ​‘net biod­iversity loss on rur­al estates is hal­ted’. Sim­il­arly, there is oppor­tun­ity to reflect the SBS 2030 object­ives to accel­er­ate res­tor­a­tion and regen­er­a­tion and embed nature friendly farm­ing, fish­ing and forestry into the activ­it­ies. There is a lack of ref­er­ence in the draft cor­por­ate plan to how Crown Estate Scot­land intend to sup­port chan­ging agri­cul­ture prac­tices and the ten­an­ted sec­tor on their land.

Along­side activ­it­ies for wood­land cre­ation and peat­land res­tor­a­tion, the Park Author­ity would like see activ­it­ies include fresh­wa­ter and catch­ment res­tor­a­tion. This would link well with the activ­ity to sup­port wild sal­mon ini­ti­at­ives, to deliv­ery of the Flood Resi­li­ence Strategy and to deliv­ery of NPPP object­ives for fresh­wa­ter res­tor­a­tion. Wood­land cre­ation should con­sider max­im­ising mul­tiple pub­lic bene­fit, includ­ing biod­iversity, for example in pro­mot­ing con­tinu­ous cov­er forestry and nat­ive wood­land (which can be com­mer­cial). This could be ref­er­enced to reen­force the role of pub­lic land as an exem­plar. It is good to see recog­ni­tion of the activ­ity to remove invas­ive and non-nat­ive spe­cies as this is a par­tic­u­lar issue on the Glen­liv­et estate where sitka spruce regen­er­a­tion is pro­lif­ic and expanding.

Increased com­munity involve­ment in the man­age­ment of land will improve the deliv­ery of pub­lic bene­fits to com­munit­ies, sup­port­ing their health and well­being. The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan includes an object­ive to increase the num­ber of assets in com­munity own­er­ship or man­age­ment, the num­ber of social enter­prises that gen­er­ate a profit and the area of land where com­munit­ies are involved in man­age­ment decisions. We would like to see the descrip­tion of com­munity wealth build­ing expan­ded to include these para­met­ers and pos­i­tion the Crown Estate Scot­land as an exem­plar of best prac­tice. There may also be an oppor­tun­ity here to ref­er­ence the Scot­tish Land Commission’s Rights and Respons­ib­il­it­ies principles.

There is also little ref­er­ence to afford­able hous­ing as an issue with­in the draft cor­por­ate plan. As a sig­ni­fic­ant landown­er in Scot­land and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park it would be good to see ref­er­ence to Crown Estate Scot­land enabling afford­able hous­ing oppor­tun­it­ies on their land.

Crown Estate Scot­land have an oppor­tun­ity to really show how pub­lic land can deliv­er mul­tiple bene­fits. The cor­por­ate plan is rightly a high-level stra­tegic doc­u­ment but it may be

bene­fi­cial to include an appendix on each of the sig­ni­fic­ant land hold­ings the Crown Estate has stat­ing the key aims and object­ives for these over the next 5 years.

I am happy to dis­cuss any of these points in more detail as you look to final­ise your cor­por­ate plan.

Yours sin­cerely

Grant Moir CEO, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority