Proposals to end the rate exemptions enjoyed by sporting estates for deer stalking and shooting will sacrifice over 100 rural worker jobs immediately with more to follow, Scotland's gamekeepers are warning.
The Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA), has announced a year long initiative highlighting the vital role played by those who work on the estates and their families in the life of local communities.
But the proposed abolition of business rate exemptions for country sports has a Scottish Government land reform measure, and the imposition of new angling taxes, have been identified by the SGA as posing a threat to these people.
At present, the organisation represents 5300 members with around 1500 of those employed as full-time gamekeepers, land or river ghillies, wildlife managers and rangers.
After taking soundings from its membership, the feeling is that 7 per cent of those may face redundancy and housing problems immediately if radical land reforms are pushed through.
Launching ' The Year of the Rural Worker', at the body's AGM in Perth, Chairman Alex Hogg urged politicians from all parties not to make stretched families pay the price for change.
"As an organisation, we are aware there are situations in which land reform can work. We oppose bad management of all kinds, whether the ownership is public or private."
But he said removing business rate exemptions for shooting and stalking won't help achieve the Scottish Government's goal of a million acres under community ownership by 2020.
" It will simply cost the job of a working person on every marginal estate or shoot across Scotland," he said.
He said SGA members were clear that margins on sporting estates were tight, and the most likely economy would be in the form of a wage.
"That is likely to be a worker on a modest salary who receives a house to bring up a family in the local community. These individuals give a great deal back to Scotland, for which they take little in return, but they keep the heartbeat in small places. They have had nothing to do with the way land ownership patterns have emerged, yet it is them who will be made to suffer. That's not social justice."
He said the SGA would work over the next nine months to highlight the 'unseen' hours given freely by rural workers in areas such as lifeline services.
Mr Hogg said: "The human face of working people in the countryside is too rarely seen and their contribution undervalued."
But a Scottish Government spokeswoman said Scotland's land had to be an asset that benefits the many, not the few. Meaningful land reform was backed by widespread support from within the Scottish Parliament.
"Non-domestic rates were paid on shooting and deerstalking estates for more than 100 years before the exemption was introduced in 1995, and so we do not expect its removal will have a detrimental effect on rural employment.
"In contrast, there is robust evidence that community-owned estates, including those with sporting rights, are generating significant income and investment, and creating jobs, for local communities. Views from rural stakeholders will continue to inform our land reform proposals, and we will closely consider the evidence submitted during our recent consultation," he said.
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