Thoughts ahead of the imminent 2023-24 Programme for Government statement
In this blog, our Press & Public Affairs Manager Simon Ritchie shares his hopes that the upcoming Programme for Government statement will highlight the Scottish Government's intentions to work with rural Scotland, rather than to create more barriers to collaboration.
The 2023-24 Programme for Government statement is, above all else, a massive opportunity.
It’s a chance for First Minister Humza Yousaf – still only a few months into his role – and his new Cabinet and Ministerial team, to reset the Scottish Government’s relationship with rural Scotland and its multiform people, businesses and communities.
It’s not just critics demanding a reset. The government accepts the need for it. Undertaking the New Deal for Business programme of engagement in the spring and summer, and developing a new Rural Delivery Plan, has been a promising start to that reset. But we must be under no illusions – it is just a start.
There are still enormous challenges facing rural Scotland and its businesses as we approach the autumn of 2023.
The lack of clarity on future agriculture support – an industry that directly provides 67,000 jobs, many thousands more in supply chains, and is the third largest employer in Scotland – is concerning.
The government’s overtures on Land Reform, ostensibly aimed at helping us reach Net Zero rather than “righting the wrongs of the past”, threaten to do exactly the opposite, throwing up barriers to much needed landscape-scale land management for people, jobs and nature.
Finding a house to rent in rural Scotland is a horrendous experience, because the government isn’t building enough houses, and there is not enough confidence from the private sector to build them, with policies designed to protect tenants in the short term, like the rent freeze and evictions ban, suppressing supply and harming tenants in the long term.
New proposals to bring EPC ratings up to C or above will prove costly and very challenging in rural housing stock, which is much older and harder to heat and retrofit than urban housing stock. A more pragmatic approach is needed which prevents the potential for huge reductions in rural housing stocks.
The Wildlife Management and Muirburn Bill is set to impose disproportionate and unreasonable provisions on land managers that will ultimately create a climate of uncertainty for rural business. At a time when we need all hands to the pump to reverse biodiversity loss and create landscapes that are resilient to climate change, the Bill – in its current form – constitutes a significant threat to much of what we have come to know and love about the Scottish uplands.
And the botched handling of Short Term Lets Licensing – arguably important in city centres but tantamount to a sledgehammer on a nut in rural communities – threatens to derail our fragile rural tourism sector, already struggling to rebuild from the pandemic.
There are indeed a lot of problems, but there’s also a lot of possibility.
Landowners and land managers see themselves as part of the solution in so many of the challenges we face. The Scottish Government has ambitious targets to deliver – and rural businesses are delivery partners. They have the will and the resources, in many cases, to get on with it and provide solutions for people, jobs, and nature. But they do need the government to enable them, not hinder them.
SLE undertook a major study in late 2022 on The Contribution of Rural Estates to Scotland’s Wellbeing Economy. The research tried to quantify the extraordinary contribution of rural estates to many of the internationally-recognised metrics that make up the parts of a Wellbeing Economy.
The report showed that, in addition to adding £2,400,000,000 a year to Scotland’s GDP, estates also support 56,000 jobs, provide housing for 13,000 families and accommodate 14,000 businesses on their land. They are also stewards of the natural environment, with hundreds of estate staff working to protect biodiversity across the country, and welcome 5,400,000 domestic visitors a year. They also host a massive 7,540 MW of installed renewable energy capacity, and are anchors of their communities, providing certainty and support for a huge range of businesses and communities.
There are some fairly straightforward fundamental areas where government can act now, in the Programme for Government, to deliver tangible benefits. A good start would be more support for practical rural skills development to ensure the workforce is equipped with the skills needed to navigate the twin climate and nature crises and a more sustainable future – something which has been identified as crucial in many reports. And there’s a pressing need to recognise and support rural connectivity – whether it’s the long-promised improvements to the A9, or redoubling efforts to improve rural broadband.
In this year’s Programme for Government, the Scottish Government has an opportunity. It should work with rural businesses, accepting that outreached hand of partnership, to deliver for all of Scotland’s people and especially those in rural areas.
We are hopeful that the policy announcements in the Programme for Government, and in the budget to follow later, enable this partnership work rather than create more barriers. Estates and rural businesses have the solutions – it would be foolish for the government not to grasp them.
Estates and rural businesses are ready and willing to do more for people, jobs and nature. Our message to the Scottish Government is: work with us, not against us.
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