The Scottish Tenant Farmers Association (STFA) has urged MSPs to “scrutinise” the recently published Land Reform Bill.
It is calling for “stronger measures” to ensure that tenants do not suffer the same unfortunate consequences as English tenants following the introduction of new support schemes.
Christopher Nicholson, who is chairman of STFA, says the organisation has signalled its support for the objectives of the draft bill.
It has asked for the inclusion of stronger measures to ensure a just transition for Scotland’s tenant farmers.
Stronger measures needed to ensure Scottish tenants don’t suffer the same consequences as English tenants
Mr Nicholson said: “This bill comes at a time when tenant farming is under great pressure from alternative land uses including forestry and greening measures.
“This is combined with landlords looking to position themselves to take advantage of our taxation framework and future land based support schemes.
“With an increasing proportion of our tenanted sector under non-secure leases, farm tenants are facing an uncertain future.”
‘Tenant farming is under great pressure from alternative land uses’
Mr Nicholson says the biggest fear is that Scottish policy makers could follow suit with the decision makers south of the border, where a new CAP replacement policy and the development of markets for bio-diversity schemes have been made.
“One only has to look to England to see what can happen to farm tenants on fixed term leases when support schemes, the tax framework and greening opportunities all stack up together against the tenanted sector,” he said.
“Landowners in England are now in a favourable position to farm the land themselves with the introduction of the Environmental Land Management (ELM) and there isn’t a requirement for active farming.
“They’ll find it easier to get rid of tenants, many of which are not secure in England.”
Mr Nicholson says there is a lot of pressure on land use in Scotland at the moment and tenants are going to feel the pain worse.
“The fear is that we will end up with a similar scheme in Scotland where greening measures come first, with early indications that some of Scotland’s largest landowners are removing tenants to secure future support schemes for themselves,” he said.
Early indications of large landowners removing tenants to secure schemes for themselves
“Although it is reassuring that many of our tenants are secure, most of the tenanted land in Scotland is on marginal land supporting beef and sheep enterprises which is the focus of green investors who have little concern for tenant farmers,” he said.
The bill does however contain provisions to strengthen the position of tenants on both traditional secure leases and the modern fixed term leases.
Measures
- Improvements to the rules around diversifications
- Changes to give tenants greater scope to invest on their holdings
- Modernising the Rules of Good Husbandry and Estate Management
- A new waygo process enabling landlords and tenants to settle waygo claims in good time
- Long overdue changes to the rent test
- Ensuring tenant farmers receive fair compensation for resumption
- Improving the rules governing compensation for deer and game damage.
“These are all measures we have been fighting hard for, particularly the compensation for resumption in cases where landlords seek to turn tenanted farmland into forestry or floodplains,” added Mr Nicholson.
