Call for a view of the ‘bigger picture’ in debate on tenancies

A PLEA for everyone involved in farm tenancies to “step back a bit and look at the bigger picture” was made yesterday by Andrew Howard, a board member of Scottish Land & Estates.

The debate between tenant and landlord has been heated throughout the past decade, with changes in legislation, and interpretation of those changes, being used by both sides as ammunition in their battle.

Speaking in Perth at the launch of the findings of a survey into the tenanted sector which will be used in a forthcoming review of agricultural holdings legislation, Howard said it was important to avoid “everyone getting into their trenches and putting their tin hats on”.

If Scotland wanted a vibrant tenanted sector, the legislative framework had to be attractive to both sides.

In an oblique response to a comment earlier this year from Scottish Government cabinet secretary Richard Lochhead on landowners having a “moral responsibility” for the tenanted sector, Howard said: “It is no good imploring someone to do something that is against their best interests. We need to create a framework to suit both before we can have a more positive environment.”

Comparing the tenanted sector in England, where numbers of let holdings have actually increased, with that in Scotland, where the long-term decline in tenancies has continued to the point where less than one-third of the land is now tenanted, Howard said the “political wallpaper was significantly different north of the Border”.

He saw no great difference in the fiscal or legislative sides but said there was one stark difference and that, was south of the Border, letting land was not a “hot potato”.

The survey carried out by the SLE in April covered 20 of the largest estates in Scotland and took in some 650 let farms, which accounts for about 10 per cent of the total number of tenancies in Scotland. Howard accepted that by only taking information from the large estates this might not truly reflect the overall position but defended the survey as giving important information quickly on a major topic.

Despite claims that a large percentage of land was now lying idle and unlet, the survey revealed there was no evidence of this “sitting” on land, although Howard admitted that the overall climate for letting had two big clouds hanging over it.

These were uncertainty on how the Common Agricultural Policy would pan out and uncertainty because of the forthcoming review of agricultural legislation promised by Lochhead earlier this year.

These had reduced the normal level of change in tenancies but the biggest potential for change arising from the survey might come with one-third of tenants surveyed not having a successor in place and one sixth of the total being more than 65 years old.