SIR, – As a small scale owner occupier upland farmer with a part time job to make ends meet, I was disappointed at yet another moan about the hardships of tenant farming, this time rubbishing the amnesty on improvements in last week's issue of The SF.

The amnesty is an honest, but misguided attempt, by SL and E to address tenants' concerns about waygoing compensation, hoping to be seen to be reasonable with perhaps something in return from the tenant farming lobby, but there was little chance of that.

To say that the law on improvements is now worse is rubbish. The usual method before 2003 was for an improvement to be written down over a period of years to zero, but this was outlawed and the tenant now gets fair value at his waygoing.

As for the claim that the only way a tenant can regain lost improvements is to be given an absolute right to buy his farm; this would simply be a form of legalised theft.

If a tenant is so keen to be an owner occupier, then he should go out and buy a farm on the open market.

General partners within limited partnerships knew what they were getting into when they signed up, so shouldn't be surprised after the partnership term has run out when a landlord decides to take the farm back in-hand due to a political climate which gives no incentive to let.

Give the parties freedom of contract and there would be a flood of land to let!

Tenant farming is an important sector, but a small minority of tenants don't realise how fortunate they are. What other sector of society gets to occupy somebody else's property in perpetuity due to the succession laws in Scotland?

What other section of society gets a virtually free house within a lease with virtually free cottages for his workers? The rest of us have mortgages or a market rent to pay.

There is no doubt that there are some poor landlords out there but it is also a fact that there are some poor tenants which are almost impossible to remove under current legislation.

The 2016 Act has added yet another layer of down to an already feather bedded sector. Who else can run a farm into the ground, get compensated for improvements at waygo, with no counter claim for his dilapidations, with the landlord also facing the prospect of paying a further 25% of the value of the farm for the privilege of regaining his property.

Some of the more politically active tenant farmers need to reassess their situation and stop milking the ill-informed generosity of the SNP government.

Borders tenant

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