Scottish Land & Estates supports balanced approach to common grazings in Crofting Bill

Press Release

The new Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill provides a good opportunity for stronger regulation of crofts and a fairer balance of rights and responsibilities in the use of common grazings.

Scottish Land & Estates, the rural business organisation, was speaking following the publication of the Bill on June 3. The Bill includes measures to encourage environmental activity on croft land and introduces provisions to allow for crofter-led projects as well as joint ventures between crofters and landowners, particularly on common grazings.

SLE Legal Adviser Jackie McCreery said: “The Bill follows almost three years of detailed stakeholder engagement and could be held up as an exemplar of genuine co-design between government and the relevant sector. It should assist in streamlining some processes and enabling regulation for crofting to be enforced more easily by the Crofting Commission, whilst also facilitating more environmental land management which continues the trend of the ongoing changes to agricultural tenancies.

“Common grazing areas have huge potential for peatland restoration and other environmental projects, but many are abandoned or there is no grazings committee to help regulate them.

“If we are serious about achieving net zero and improving the condition of peatlands, then the first step must be to improve the regulation of common grazings, failing which to enable owners to have default step-in rights. We hope this Bill will deliver that because without it, we will continue to see vast areas of land going to waste - not for lack of interest, but for lack of structure and investment.”

Jackie continued: “Landowners and crofters are already familiar with sharing the benefits of renewable energy projects. The same principle can apply to peatland restoration and other environmental schemes - but the risks involved are very different. Ongoing liabilities in these projects can be significant, so the sharing of benefit won’t necessarily follow the same pattern as the traditional split income from wind turbines on croft land. Managing expectations will be key because carbon markets have not transpired to be the cash generators many thought they would be.”

Ms McCreery concluded: “We do hold concerns about the limited time available to pass the legislation prior to the next election but we are committed to working with government and stakeholders over the coming months as the Bill makes its way through parliament.”