Anger flares as right to buy controversy rears its head again

A FIFE solicitor has come under fire from the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association for “outspoken comments” suggesting that the threat of giving tenants an absolute right to buy their farms will deter landowners from offering farms for let.

Colin Clark, head of agriculture and estates with St Andrews-based, Pagan Osborne, was responding to the recent suggestion from SNP MSP Rob Gibson, convener of the Scottish Parliament’s rural affairs committee, that consideration should be given to extending legislation which gives tenants the right to buy if their farm is put up for sale by the landowner.

The threat of re-opening the right to buy debate is likely to alarm landowners who thought the issue was dead and buried.

“The renewed threat of an absolute right to buy will have a significant effect on the letting market,” Clark says. “Few if any landlords will be prepared to let land if there is a possibility of being forced to sell when they do not wish to do so.”

However, his remarks have incurred the wrath of STFA chairman Angus McCall, who says Clark’s comments are “ill-judged and inappropriate” given his recent appointment by the Law Society of Scotland as independent technical legal adviser to the all-industry Tenant Farming Forum. “Mr Clark’s public remarks give rise to grave concerns which I shall be raising at the next TFF meeting and in writing to the Law Society of Scotland,” said McCall.

“He should bear in mind his public responsibilities as an impartial adviser to the TFF. If the TFF is to have any credibility, it must ensure that the advice it receives is strictly neutral and free of bias.”

The re-emergence of calls to extend tenants’ rights to buy has come as no surprise to McCall given the dissatisfaction and frustration of tenants with the present system. He admits that it is a view supported by some members of his association.

“It comes as a wake-up call to examine root causes and consider constructive remedies,” he says.