Tenants on both traditional secure leases and the modern limited duration leases could be in a stronger position due to proposals in the recently published Land Reform Bill.
Wider land reform measures are also included in the bill which may positively impact the management of Scotland’s bigger estates of over 3,000 hectares.
The Scottish Tenant Farmers Association (STFA) says the bill is a “significant step” in Scotland’s journey of land and tenancy reform.
The measures for tenants include improvements to the rules around diversifications, changes to give tenants greater scope to invest on their holdings and a new waygo process enabling landlords and tenants to settle waygo claims in good time.
It also includes modernising the Rules of Good Husbandry and Estate Management, long overdue changes to the rent test and ensuring tenant farmers receive fair compensation for resumption.
Rules may also be improved on governing compensation for deer and game damage.
STFA chairman Christopher Nicholson said the organisation has been lobbying over a number of years for substantial changes to tenancy legislation, and tenants will be relieved to see the measures contained in the Bill.
He said: “This bill has arrived just in time to allow tenant farmers to prosper in the face of a rapidly changing agricultural landscape.
“These measures are all necessary to allow tenant farmers fair access to future support schemes and markets which seek to reward biodiversity and climate change mitigation in addition to food production.
‘The tenancy provisions of the Bill develop further some of the principles established by the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016, in particular ensuring that all tenants who face resumptions will be fairly compensated for the loss of land from their leases using the now accepted principle that a tenant’s interest in his/her lease can be valued at half the vacant possession premium.
“Given the increase in resumptions over recent years with landlords seeking to benefit from green capital investments, this modernisation of compensation for resumptions is key to maintaining fairness in the ten-anted sector.”
Mr Nicholson said there is still work to be done as the bill passes through parliament but that STFA looks forward to working with MSPs to ensure that the proposed land and tenancy reforms deliver for tenant farmers.
