Ministers are not convinced that the individual crofter's controversial right to buy his land is best serving the interests of rural Scotland in the 21st century.

It is feared that it can exacerbate housing problems in remote communities, where local people already find it almost impossible to compete in a housing market where second and holiday homes grossly inflate prices.

Such ministerial concerns emerged as Mike Russell, the Crofting Minister, was addressing the annual conference of the Scottish Crofting Foundation (formerly the Scottish Crofters Union) in Dingwall yesterday.

Mr Russell underlined the Scottish Government's commitment to crofting.

He said: "In reality the sums expended on crofting are considerable, as much as £43m per annum through specific crofting grants, the Less-Favoured Support Scheme and wider agricultural support.

"That's £1300 for every man, woman and child living in a crofting household, almost half the annual budget of Highlands and Islands Enterprise and it is money well spent."

He said that the individual crofter's right to buy, established in 1976. had been a key element of crofting legislation.

It had allowed the crofter to take more control and had in a small and often fragmented way helped fulfil the "passionate, age-old demand for the land to belong to the people".

However, crofters exercising their right to buy, only to apply to the Crofters' Commission to take some of it out of crofting in order to sell their croft house or house sites for small fortunes was different.

Mr Russell said: "It is being used by some as a means to speculate in the housing market and escape from land management obligations. That was never the intention.

"Admittedly, the right to buy does not in itself remove the housing and thus reduce the rural population. It does, however, create the need for more homes for those willing to manage crofting land.

"This puts an extra strain on funds for much needed affordable rural housing."

The minister said the right given to crofting communities in 2003 to buy their land and assets such as sporting and mineral rights did more for crofting.

"In a much greater way it gives the land to the people and bears out that campaigning cry of the Land League Is treasa tuath na tighearna' (The people are mightier than a lord)," he said.

He also encouraged more crofting communities to buy land owned by the Scottish Government.

At a press conference afterwards Mr Russell elaborated. "I think there is an issue here. The SCF asked me if I could intervene in such sale of croft land for housing. I can't. I have no legal powers to do so.

"But I did want to give a very strong steer that endless speculation on land is not the intention of the crofting legislation, nor is it good for crofting communities. That is not to say that people do not have a right to enjoy the fruits of what they own. But there are community issues."

He said the subject would be considered by the committee of inquiry into crofting, chaired by Professor Mark Shucksmith, which he described as the most important body to crofting since the Napier Commission in the 1880s.

He added: "I have indicated this should be discussed and the steer I am giving is that it is obvious to me that some damage is being done."

Background to the legislation In 1976 the Labour government established crofting tenants' rights to buy their crofts, whether the landlord wanted to sell or not, for 15 times the annual rent. These rents were traditionally low, ranging from £1 to £500.

The right to buy generally applied to the "In-by land" or the land around the croft and not the common grazings although a landlord may allow the inclusion of common apportionments.

It was a controversial measure opposed by many within Labour, not least future minister Brian Wilson. Today of just in excess of 17,700 crofts only some 2878 are owner-occupied. However, many more crofts have since been sold and land taken out of crofting.

The right to buy, however, was effectively deployed by the Assynt Crofters in their historic buyout of their land in 1992/93. When it became clear that the Swedish Bank creditors of the bankrupt property company, which had owned the 21,000-acre North Lochinver Estate, didn't want to sell to the community, crofters threatened to ensure the estate could not be sold to anybody else. They would buy strategically placed crofts throughout the estate.

But it was a different tale in 2005 when an absentee crofter, who had bought a three-acre croft in the Argyll village of Taynuilt 10 years earlier, was given permission by the Crofters' Commission to establish 10 house sites on the land.