Scottish tenant farmers in possession of secure 1991 Act tenancies will be able to retire early and with dignity if a controversial new amendment to the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill is passed by Parliament on Wednesday.
The amendment, proposed by the Scottish Government, is designed to revitalise the farming “ladder” by creating new opportunities for aspiring young entrants to buy tenancies from sitting tenants.
It also aims to arrest the steady decline in the amount of land available to let on a secure, long-term basis.
If passed, a tenant with a secure lease could invite his landlord to buy him out of his tenancy in exchange for an independently valued end-of-tenancy payment. If the landlord did not want to resume the tenancy the tenant could assign it, for value, to a new entrant.
A third option would allow the tenant and landlord to agree to convert the tenancy into a 25-year modern limited duration tenancy, which the tenant could sell on the open market.
The proposal was welcomed by the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association (STFA), who said it would create opportunities for new and developing businesses to benefit from security of tenure.
But news of the amendment provoked outrage from the landowners’ organisation, Scottish Lands and Estates (SLE).
SLE chairman Lord David Johnstone claimed that if it went ahead Richard Lochhead would go down in history as the Cabinet Secretary who “heralded the demise of the tenant farming sector in Scotland”.
“The Cabinet Secretary has caved in to placate and line the pockets of a small group of tenant farmers looking for a pay-off,” he said.
SLE warned that landlords would mount legal challenges, claiming a breach of property rights, and submit claims for compensation estimated at several hundred million pounds.
STFA chairman Christopher Nicholson described SLE’s statement as “hysterical” and said the Government’s proposal recognised and respected both groups’ heritable property rights.
He added: “This proposal is not the 11th-hour knee-jerk reaction to SNP grassroots pressure that landlords would like to think it is, but one that has months of thought and checking for European Convention of Human Rights compliance behind it.
“Assignation of 1991 tenancies has widespread support within the tenanted sector, and it is disingenuous and insulting to describe it as ‘lining the pockets of a small group of tenant farmers looking for a pay-off’.”