OPEN LETTER RESPONSE TO THE SHUCKSMITH REPORT ON CROFTING

Following the recent publication of the final report of the Committee of Inquiry on Crofting led by Professor Shucksmith, and your commitment to respond in detail later this summer, the National Trust for Scotland charity (the Trust) believes it would be useful to provide you with our considered response and hope that our input may further influence your own response on these important issues.

Crofting is a significant and valuable part of the cultural and natural heritage of the Highlands and Islands, and as landlord to six crofting estates that contain nearly 200 registered crofts, the Trust seeks to promote thriving crofting communities as part of its wider support for the countryside and the conservation of Scotland’s heritage. We wholeheartedly welcome the Shucksmith Report with its strong clear vision and bold and inspirational recommendations.

The Trust is also encouraged by the Government’s positive reaction, and the significant cross-party support, evident during the Parliamentary debate on 15 May. The strength of positive reaction across the crofting communities and organisations is a further indication that there is considerable support for the Shucksmith report and a collective desire to secure the future of crofting. Against this background the Trust has set out below more detailed thoughts on the Report’s recommendations.

Detailed Comments

1) Many of the Trust’s previous suggestions, such as reviewing the assignation of crofts, the need for crofters to reside on or near their croft and to work the land, and the review of the individual crofter’s right to buy their croft and associated de-crofting, have been taken on board and included in the Report. However, it could be considered that the report has ducked the real issue of the right to buy and passed on the issue to the local committees/boards. While this may encourage representation of local opinion it may also be subject to vested interests prevailing. The Trust would restate its earlier view that the right to buy remains the primary force in the current demise of genuine crofting and should be removed, possibly with the introduction of an “application to buy” process when a crofter genuinely requires ownership for a specific purpose that the township committee and local crofting board consider to be appropriate. Hence, the right to buy should be removed but could be reinstated on application individually, rather than the current proposal which leaves it in place subject to possible removal by the local boards.

2) The increase in active and resident crofters and greater support for contributing towards environmental and cultural public goods are laudable aims and are supported by the Trust. The achievement of these aims will depend largely on the detail of any legislation or policy changes at agency level. To ensure the success of these aims, the Trust would advocate two key features:
Firstly, it is essential that whoever governs crofting has the ability to enforce policy on residency and activity.
Secondly, funding for traditional crofting activities must be increased to reflect more accurately the costs of producing agricultural products in the remote crofting areas. The Trust has operated a simple Traditional Croft Management Scheme at Balmacara for two years and intends to continue this for another three years. This was developed through discussion between the Trust and the resident crofters on the estate. Similar inclusive and flexible schemes need to be developed on an area by area basis.

3) The Trust is supportive of the proposal to introduce a ‘residency burden’ to croft house sites from 12 May 2008, a move which would help protect crofts for the future. It is essential that any such burdens are retrospectively applied back to 12 May 2008 to prevent a rush of speculation. We would urge the Scottish Government to ensure that any such burden is enforceable, as well as considering possible penalties for any breach of this condition.

4) The report states that crofting has an important contribution to make towards sustaining a well-populated and well-managed countryside and emphasises the need for crofting to be well-regulated and governed in the public interest. The Trust warmly welcomes this stance, especially the emphasis on crofting communities being in greater control of their own destiny. The key factor in this is the form that the devolved crofting community bodies take.
We would urge Ministers to give careful consideration to key questions such as: who will be represented on these bodies - both at board and township level; whether there will be scope for amalgamation of committees where townships are either too small to form a committee or do not wish to do so individually; and the role of the landlord in these bodies. The Crofting Boards will necessarily cover very large areas and it is hard to see how such a structure might include all relevant parties, unless there is a direct link through to the township committees. We urge Ministers to consider requiring appropriate wider community consultation on decisions taken by the Boards.

5) The Trust welcomes the recognition by the report that access to affordable housing affects both crofters and the wider community, and that much assistance is needed. The proposed levels of support remain too low to provide effective support for many individuals and families throughout the Highlands & Islands. In many crofting areas it costs around £200,000 to build a house, and even with the grant and loan, this is beyond most household incomes. We would encourage the Scottish Government to seek a stronger alternative to this issue. One possibility is that through Housing Associations or local community housing trusts, new housing could be built on a shared equity basis, with the community share being retained to help ensure residency in the longer term.

6) Support for new entrants into crofting is an essential tool for bringing under-used, or un-used crofts back into use. The linkages between this support and that aimed at addressing the housing issue, as detailed above, should be strengthened.

7) Local Crofting Plans ought to reflect the balance between individual and wider crofting community rights, and contribute towards avoiding inappropriate development. However, this is where the relationship between this planning process and the statutory Local Planning process is critical. We believe that the Crofting Boards should be made statutory consultees for planning applications. The right balance must be struck to integrate crofting plans into the wider community and vice versa.

8) The vision for the governance of crofting contains many elements that the Trust believes allows for considerable improvement on the current situation. However, the benefits of separating the governance from the development function are not sufficiently clear. In what way will the Federation of Crofting Boards differ from the Commission? Obviously there will be local boards below the Federation, but the over-arching body could simply remain as the Commission with some changes. It would be an unfortunate outcome if the corporate knowledge of the many experienced staff in the Commission was lost.
That said, one potential advantage of separating the development function is that it may lead to better integration of crofting and non-crofting elements of the community. Whatever solution is applied, there must be dedicated funding for the development of crofting areas and existing funding must not be lost.

9) The proposals to devolve responsibility for governance of crofting to a more local level, encouragement of traditional crofting land uses, and enforcement of the occupancy and use of croft land are welcomed. However, the key issue is what form these proposals will take in detail. It is essential that any changes that are introduced to primary legislation regarding the above must be capable of being enforced via the Scottish Land Court (SLC) if necessary. Hence, clear guidance on how the new legislation should be interpreted must be provided, for the avoidance of doubt.
For example, if a crofter lives on or near his croft and is working the land, the report recommends there be no change to the fundamental rights of crofters that have existed for well over a century, such as security of tenure, succession and fair rents. The definition of working the land must be tightened up to avoid abuse and/or loopholes in the law.
The Crofters Commission has been criticised for its poor record of regulation within the current regulations framework. However, in reality they have tried and failed on many occasions simply because the SLC has overruled their decisions due to loopholes in the law. We would emphasise the need for any resulting legislation and guidance to be well-drafted to prevent this situation from continuing.

10) The recommendation that the register of crofts should be maintained by the Registers of Scotland, and map based, seems sensible. Comment has been made in the press about the potential cost of this element of the proposals. However, a lot of the information required (e.g. boundary information) is already recorded through the IACS system and with appropriate changes to the rules of that scheme, this could be made available to the National Register as a good starting point for creating and agreeing a map-based register.

The Trust is committed to the management of its crofting estates to protect, enhance, and promote Scotland’s crofting landscape and its associated cultural and natural heritage. We will continue to support and contribute to securing the future of crofting. We would be happy to meet with you or your colleagues to expand on any of the above.