THE Scottish Tenant Farmers Association (STFA) has made an initial submission to the Agricultural Holdings Legislation Review Group (AHLRG), based on their recent survey of members.
As reported recently in The Herald, the survey - when more than half the STFA membership responded - shows a strong desire amongst tenants for land and tenancy reform in Scotland.
After meeting with the AHLRG, STFA chairman Christopher Nicholson said: "It is clear that the current tenancy legislation is failing to provide a platform which can support the high levels of investment in infrastructure required for businesses to remain competitive in modern agriculture."
The survey revealed that 46% of respondents have had no landlord investment in the past 10 years, and 85% believe that as tenants they will not receive fair compensation for their improvements at way-go (leaving the farm).
According to Mr Nicholson, these results point to an unhealthy sate of affairs in the tenanted sector which require solutions beyond tinkering with existing legislation.
"An analysis of the survey results show that landlord investment is the key factor that creates healthy tenancies," said Mr Nicholson. He went on to explain: "The 13% of respondents with landlords willing to make investments when necessary have attitudes, experiences and relationships which set them apart from the remaining 87%; they are four times more likely to have a good relationship with their landlord, twice as likely to have diversified and three times more likely not to have had a diversification project objected to by their landlord."
Recognising impasse in the tenanted sector, the STFA is developing proposals for the use of an absolute right-to-buy (ARTB) in cases where there is a clear public interest argument.
It is also proposing that secure tenancies become freely assignable, which would help to put tenants on a more level playing field with regard to ability to invest in their holdings, as well as providing access to holdings with secure tenure for new entrants.
With an assignable lease the value of the tenant's improvements would be reflected in the value of the lease which, if freely assignable, could be used as a standard security with a bank.
"This would vastly improve a tenant's ability to borrow, and for the first time allow a tenant to benefit fully from the value of the improvements.
Furthermore, according to STFA, instead of relying on compensation for improvements from a reluctant landlord at way-go, the tenant would have the option to assign their leases for value to a third party.
Commenting on the future of the tenanted sector, Mr Nicholson went on: "In the event of the Scottish Government introducing ARTB it is highly likely that not all tenants will buy their farms and there will be a continuing need for a tenanted sector - so it is vital that we remedy current shortcomings."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article