Oct 23 2013

CAB. SEC. MUST FIRE STARTING GUN ON TENANCY REVIEW

CAB. SEC. MUST FIRE STARTING GUN ON TENANCY REVIEW

The Scottish Tenant Farmers Association has called on the Cabinet Secretary to end the uncertainly in the tenanted sector by setting out the remit, scope and timescale of the Agricultural Holdings Review as soon as possible.  

 STFA Chairman Christopher Nicholson said: “We have known for several months now that the government will be conducting a tenancy review but apart from the announcement that the absolute right to buy will be on the agenda we still have little idea of the scope of the review, how extensive it will be, how long it will take and who will be on the review group.  It is now time for the Cabinet Secretary to set out his stall and fire the starting gun so we can begin the business of discussing the future of the tenanted sector.

 “This review gives us a chance to take positive action to level the tenancy playing field, create opportunities for new entrants and reshape the structure of land tenure in Scotland.  The industry has spent 10 years agonising over tenancy law and endlessly discussing the same issues that dominated the debate in 2003.  We must now admit that our current tenancy legislation is not delivering and look for solutions.  The Cabinet Secretary obviously shares this view and we must take advantage of this once in a lifetime chance to overhaul and modernise the system. 

 “STFA is about to embark on a series on meetings countrywide to discuss tenancy reform with tenants and to hear their views and we will be encouraging them to feed their experiences in to the Scottish Government. We all know that reform is needed, but we must make sure that the compelling evidence to justify change is produced and tenants must play their part in this.”

By tfadmin • Uncategorized •