Insight Hub

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Insights | Rural, Tax

Taxing Scotland’s land – our most valuable asset

The Scottish Government’s commitment to land reform and its desire to create a more diverse pattern of land ownership in Scotland has been a key policy objective during its time in Government. Its current priorities for land reform were published in September 2021 and emphasised the Government’s desire to create a more diverse pattern of land ownership and tenure with a significantly higher proportion of land owned by the communities in Scotland

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Insights | Rural

Vacant and derelict land in Scotland

It is estimated that there is almost 11,000 hectares of vacant and derelict land within urban communities in Scotland. These sites comprise unused land, as well as land and buildings that have fallen into disrepair and require remediation before any further development or regeneration can take place.

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Insights | Rural

Environmental considerations when dealing with rural properties

The environment and tackling environmental issues are at the forefront of climate change discourse, which has gained significant traction in recent years across all sectors. The rural and agricultural sector is no exception to this, with landowners and businesses alike increasingly thinking about how they can diversify, optimise operations, and develop new technologies to reduce their impact on the environment. 

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Insights | Rural

Access rights… nothing is ever straightforward!

Very often rural property is not directly accessed from a publicly adopted road. Access may need to be taken over roads, or tracks are owned by a third party. If you are buying rural land, ideally a seller will have a clear servitude right of pedestrian and vehicular access to that land over the road or track owned by the third party specified in their title to the land.

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Events | Corporate Law, Employment
  • Date: 24 March 2022

Protecting IP for Growth: conversation on the practical and legal opportunities of securing your business’ valuable IP and trade secrets

Douglas McLachlan and Musab Hemsi of Anderson Strathern together with Basil Manoussos of Edinburgh Napier University’s Cyber Academy explored the important steps businesses must take to secure and protect their valuable IP and trade secrets against internal and external threats. 

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Insights | Employment
  • 8 February 2022
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Immigration Law Update

‘Casablanca’ is often said to be the ‘greatest movie of all time’: certainly, its lines remain highly quotable and can be used to illustrate virtually any situation imaginable – even recent developments in immigration law…

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Insights | Tax

Have you opted to tax – What does that mean?

In our pre-sale due diligence, where appropriate, we ask clients whether the land being sold has been “opted to tax”. Very often clients are puzzled by this query and so in this short article I hope to clarify what we mean when we ask this question and what opting to tax is.

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Insights | Employment

Constructing good contractor relationships – using IR35 to harness growth

IR35 – or off-payroll working – almost felt like a dirty phrase when it expanded from public into the private sector in April 2021. On balance, the administrative and organisational headaches pale in comparison to non-compliance, or outright contractor bans.

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Events | Corporate Law, Tax
  • Date: 6 April 2022

Scottish Referrals CPD – Discover everything you need to know about share buybacks

Join to hear our tax specialist, Alison Pryde, and corporate law expert, Nick Howie, talk you through the main company law and tax issues to be aware of when you advise a company on a purchase of its own shares.

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Insights | Employment
  • 12 January 2022

Coronavirus – employee health and wellbeing concerns

Coronavirus has had a significant impact on everyone’s working and personal life since the World Health Organisation declared a pandemic in March 2020.

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Events | Employment
  • Date: 8 February 2022

Club HR: Let’s not talk about Covid-19 – Employment law trends for 2022

Our Club HR webinar on 8 February looked at what's on the horizon in employment law for the New Year.

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Insights | Commercial Property

NoLo – the tee total trend

Over the festive period, those looking for a non-alcoholic drink in pubs and restaurants may have noticed an increase in their options. The low and non-alcoholic drinks market (‘NoLo’) is experiencing rapid growth, spurred on partly by a more health-conscious population emerging from months of lockdown and by those looking for new experiences.

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