Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust acquires Cairngorm land for £7.5m

Jason Baggaley

The site, acquired as part of the company’s carbon strategy, supports 956 hectares for planting with natural broadleaf trees (about 1.5m trees in total) with approximately 115 hectares for peatland restoration, with the remainder open land to support bio diverse habitats.

The site is expected to sequester approximately 195,630 tonnes of carbon up until 2060, representing 73 per cent of the company’s residual embedded and operational carbon.

Jason Baggaley, fund manager of SLIPIT, said: “SLIPIT has acquired this significant opportunity for reforestation as part of its carbon strategy.

“We believe that being an early mover will give the company an important advantage in future costs for offsetting as society moves to net zero by 2050. We anticipate making a couple of further acquisitions, on a smaller scale, to complete this element of the carbon strategy.

“Although the focus is on carbon offsetting the opportunities for wider ecological and net bio diversity gain are also being explored, which is important given changing legislation around development in the UK.”