Thriving rural communities? The Scottish Government need to think again…..

It’s almost 8 months since I took up the post of Chief Executive at the Scottish Crofting Federation and it’s certainly been eventful!

Let’s talk positives first…..

I was delighted to join the SCF to continue its work supporting and representing crofters and crofting.  At the time of writing, we have completed our first set of roadshows of the year and are about to start our second and my ambition is that we will be out and about to each crofting area at least a couple of times a year.  Face to face get togethers are such an important way to meet members and find out what’s on everyone’s minds, how policies are impacting in their area, what the key concerns are, how we can help and I enjoy these very much.  We have many plans for the future focused on improving the support we provide to crofters and the results of our recent membership survey will inform how we develop services and activities and we are very grateful to all who participated in this.

A key function over and above member support is our political activity and I arrived in my role at a crucial time for crofting with many legislative bills going through Parliament that will impact on crofters and crofting for years to come, including the Agriculture & Rural Communities Bill, Land Reform Bill, Good Food Nation Plan, National Biodiversity Strategy and the much awaited Crofting Bill itself.

The Scottish Government talks a lot about wanting to have thriving rural communities and a just transition for all as we move towards net zero but I have to say that what I have seen so far seems to often fly in the face of this aspiration.  It very much feels like they are doing all in their power to add more and more burdens to those communities by implementing policies that seem to be guided more by what works for large scale agriculture or urban settings and little real consideration of how they impact small scale agriculture and remote, rural communities, many of which are situated within crofting areas.

For many crofters, the potential impacts of the new Agriculture and Rural Communities Bill are causing a lot of uncertainty. Much is still unknown about what changes to the payments programme will mean in terms of placing more and increasingly complex admin requirements on crofters.   What we do know now is that in order to receive basic payments, a whole farm plan will be required from 2025 and some conditions, such as carbon audits, may need to be paid for and require consultants to conduct them which may not be available in sufficient numbers in all areas to keep up with demand.  Fears being expressed at our roadshows is that many crofters, particularly those working at the smaller scale, may decide it’s no longer viable to remain in the system.   The wider negative social and economic impacts of this on local communities is also a concern.  If folk stop keeping livestock, for instance, there are not only the environmental impacts of reduced land management but also the knock on effects to other local businesses, employment and ultimately, potentially population retention.  All of this would have the opposite effects on some of the desired outcomes of the Government’s key objectives.

Recently our focus turned to responding to the Good Food Nation Plan consultation.  I think it’s fair to say that we had high hopes for this plan, it could be a great opportunity for small scale producers to play an active role in strengthening food security within our country, but alas, we have been left sorely disappointed with what is currently in the plan.  We feel it lacks ambition, pays little attention to the needs of local food systems such as support for abattoirs and shows an ignorance in relation to prime Scottish produce such as beef and lamb.  A missed opportunity if nothing changes.

A final example of increasing burdens on rural communities came recently when the implementation of new building regulations which effectively mean that the installation of solid fuel burners, such as wood burners, is now banned in any new build or conversion.  The Scottish Government’s attempt at reassurance was to tell us that they might be allowed as an alternative emergency back up where there is a high risk of power cuts, but how and who determines that will fall to the local councils so feels like a bit of a lottery.

This new policy, whilst perhaps making sense in urban settings, is a further display that no consideration was given to the situation in rural parts of the Highlands and Islands where many rely on solid fuels such as wood and peat to provide reliable, cheap sources of heat and it isn’t so many years since the Government was promoting wood as a carbon neutral fuel source!  A point which we have very publicly made and will continue to do so.  

So, what can we do about it?  

Behind the scenes at SCF HQ, we are very busy lobbying politicians on behalf of crofters about the impact of these policies and in particular at the moment, changes we would like to see in the Agriculture & Rural Communities Bill.  This work has seen us meeting with many MSPs on a one to one basis and we will continue to do this as the Bill progresses through the next stage, presenting the case for a truly good deal for crofters in the new support system.  The views and concerns that have been shared at our local meetings so far have been relayed to MSPs during these conversations and are a powerful way of impressing upon them the potential realities of what they are considering.  

We have seen some success so far  and in the stage 1 debate on the Agriculture and Rural Communities Bill held on Wednesday 27th March, SCF’s asks for better support for smaller businesses and for the redistribution of direct payments from larger towards smaller producers (also known as ‘frontloading’) featured prominently.  

There is still much to do, however, and our over-riding message to the government is that if they want to talk about thriving rural communities and a just transition for all, then they must start listening much more to those of us who live and work in remote rural communities, who are already looking after the land in a sympathetic way, who keep their communities alive and populated, who display true resilience every day and then let’s make it a truly just transition for them.