We welcome the opportunity to provide the committee with an update on the progress so far. The interim report was published on 20 June and marked an important milestone for the future of tenant farming in Scotland. I am pleased with the warm response that we have received from all the stakeholders. They, in turn, have played an important part in the success of the review so far.
Over recent years, we have all aimed to support the tenant farming sector and improve relationships between tenant farmers and their landlords. Although some changes have started to work, the committee knows as well as we all do that tenant farming is a complex and emotive area in agriculture and that agriculture itself is not a static industry. Tenant farmers and, in particular, those who wish to join the proud tradition of tenant farming in Scotland still face many practical problems. Tenant farming is a cornerstone of Scottish agriculture, and it can also play a role in supporting vibrant and sustainable rural communities across the country. That is why I as minister am absolutely committed to bringing forward better solutions.
I knew that the task was never going to be easy—indeed, my four aims for the review group were ambitious and very challenging—but we have already worked hard at meeting them and delivering our vision for a dynamic sector. Of course, our vision is of a tenancy sector that gets the best from the land and the people farming it, provides for new entrants and forms part of a sustainable future for Scottish farming.
You will be aware that, as part of the process, we set eight aspirations for the future of the tenanted sector. I will not go through those aspirations just now, but I know that the committee discussed them at its recent evidence session. We have engaged with the industry to ensure that we have support for those aspirations and, since then, we have focused on identifying the barriers to achieving them. During the process, we met and talked to more than 300 people and received nearly 80 pieces of written evidence; we also held open meetings in Islay, Bute, Ayr, St Boswells, Dumfries, Stranraer, Inverness, Blair Atholl, Glenlivet, Turriff, Inverurie and Perth. As members will see, those meetings, of which I attended only a small number—the review group attended most of them—have taken place right across Scotland and have been a very important part of the process.
On our visits, people took time out away from the spring lambing, the calving, the silage making and whatever to talk to us, and many who wanted to express their views opened their homes to us. Indeed, conversations often happened behind closed doors because of the nature of some of the issues that people wanted to raise.
We are very grateful to the stakeholder organisations, which have discussed the issues very frankly not only with us but with each other and have made great efforts to facilitate the visits and wider engagements that have taken place across Scotland’s farms. Their willingness to engage with each other and to have honest and frank discussions has been one of the most positive outcomes of the process.
A great example of that proactive approach is the joint initiative on rent reviews that has been announced by NFUS, the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association and Scottish Land & Estates and which of course was in the news just a couple of weeks ago. Andrew Thin played a very important role in brokering that agreement, which aims to bring stability and peace of mind to those involved in the rent review process in light of the very prominent uncertainties that have been reported in the news recently. I strongly welcome the dedication and co-operation that have been shown by all three organisations and, in particular, by their representatives Nigel Miller, David Johnstone and Christopher Nicholson. As minister, I very much look forward to the development of the initiative, and I urge the whole industry, including land agents and their legal representatives, to follow the recommendations in the joint memorandum. It is really important that all sides of the industry throw their weight behind it and make it work.
Over the summer, we have focused on the next stage of our work and the three main workstreams, which are: first, establishing a stable and effective framework for secure 1991 tenancies; secondly, creating a new and flexible framework to stimulate diverse other tenancy arrangements; and thirdly ensuring a much more supportive, wider, cross-cutting context for the whole of the country’s tenant farming sector. Although it is necessary for the group to have space to develop its thinking in private, we will continue to draw on advice and seek contributions from individuals on specific issues over the coming months. In the autumn, we will engage further with stakeholders to discuss our thinking around potential draft recommendations and, by late autumn, we will begin to prepare our final report.
At this stage, it would be wrong for me or my colleagues to comment on specific details of our most recent discussions before our views are fully formed and agreed, but against that backdrop we look forward to today’s discussion and will be as frank and as open as we can with you about many of the important issues that people will want to hear about and you will want to ask about.
I thank you for the opportunity to discuss this matter. Indeed, having read the Official Report of your helpful and illuminating evidence taking over the past week or two, I thank the committee for its work, too.