Amid a myriad of uncertainty facing Scottish landowners, one thing is certain: change is coming. And it is important not to overlook the prospect of what may be heading along the track for landowners, farmers and crofters.
Whatever comes out, once the debate over Scotland’s Land Reform Bill is done - and its final form is known - it is a safe assumption that there will be an increasing onus on landowners when it comes to engaging with the local community, tackling climate change and managing tenancies.
In addition to this, there are proposed new rules surrounding the sale of large landholdings and the creation of a new Land and Communities Commissioner responsible for overseeing the new community engagement requirements and reporting to the Scottish Ministers ahead of any lotting decisions being made.
With all of this coming at a time when agriculture cannot afford to stand still, landowners are already asking what they might need to consider as they draw up business plans for the years ahead and consider how their land can be best used.
It is a difficult question to answer. But horizon scanning is useful when considering the future of your own land or business.
What’s in the Land Reform Bill?
The Scottish Government has said that “new land reform legislation will aim to change how land is owned and managed in rural and island communities for the better”.
It includes:
- The potential for land sales to be placed into smaller lots through measures that could see certain sales of landholdings of more than 1,000 hectares prohibited until Ministers can consider their impact on the local community.
- Granting communities greater powers to take ownership of land through the introduction of advance notice by landowners of certain sales from large landholdings.
- A legal responsibility on owners of the largest landholdings to show how they use their land and how that use contributes to the likes of addressing climate change as well as protecting and restoring nature.
Focusing on tenancy agreements
The Bill also proposes placing a duty on Scottish Ministers to publish a Land Management Tenancy which will “support people to use and manage land in a way that meets their, and the nation’s, needs”.
It also includes a number of measures to reform tenant farming legislation - essentially allowing them to make greater diversification decisions themselves. It is a move that Ministers say is intended to “provide more opportunities to improve land, to become more sustainable and productive and to ensure that tenants are fairly rewarded for their investment of time and resources in compensation at the end of tenancy”.
Such changes will have an impact on long-term estate management and landowners are wise to obtain legal advice when considering any tenancy changes.
The wider legislative agenda
More widely, there are questions about how Scotland’s Agriculture and Rural Communities Bill may factor into all of this. This Bill was created to provide assistance to farming and rural communities and develop a framework of support payments and is currently going through the legislative process. Its objectives are to prioritise food production, climate mitigation and biodiversity gain.
There is, of course, some way to go in the political debate on all of this. While the added uncertainty will be unwelcome for many, there are potential implications for rural enterprises and communities which should be borne in mind when making longer-term plans.
Published 30 May 2024.
