“HARMFUL land monopolies” are causing “significant and long-term damage” to communities, a Scottish Land Commission report found today.

Landowners were abusing their powers and communities had little or no method of redress, the report said.

It called for changes in either ownership or management practices to protect fragile rural communities from the “irresponsible exercise of power.”

More than 407 people from land owners and managers to community representatives and individuals submitted evidence for the report.

It found that most of the disadvantages associated with Scotland’s current pattern of land ownership relate to a concentration of social, economic and decision-making powers, not simply the size of landholdings.

Hamish Trench, chief executive of the Scottish Land Commission, said: “The evidence we have collected clearly shows that it is the concentration of power associated with land ownership, rather than necessarily the scale of landholding, that has a significant impact on the public interest.”

Landowners’ lobby group Scottish Land and Estates said it was “deeply concerned that the report still sees land ownership rather than land use as the prime route to dealing with issues being faced by communities.”

The Scottish government said it expected the report would inform how it addresses the issues.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said: “This report exposes the real divide in Scotland – between the wealthy few and the rest.

“Labour abolished feudalism in the first term of the Scottish Parliament but 20 years later we are still living with the consequences of feudal ownership.

“With that ownership comes power. That’s why Scottish Labour would also implement a radical new land reform act in government, which would break up these monopolies, and ensure that there is a fair distribution of land in the public interest.”