A MAJOR legal figure is calling on the Scottish Government to launch an inquiry into the apparent shortcomings of agricultural holdings legislation and the current system for letting farmland.

Lord Gill, former Lord President and Lord Justice General, made the call at the Scottish Agricultural Arbiters and Valuers Association (SAAVA) AGM, held near Glasgow, recently.

He said the recent land reform act has made landlords even more reluctant to let land, entirely the opposite of its intention.

The former chair of the Scottish Law Commission explained that, in his opinion, section 10 of the 2016 Land Reform Act was only encouraging the apparent decline in the tenanted sector rather than rectifying it. His speech also explained that he believed that the new act failed to address the fundamental issues driving the decline in the sector.

He said the time was long overdue for a full and systematic review which would look at the fundamentals of the legislation – adding that this should include an investigation of alternatives to traditional tenancies.

“There should now be a major inquiry into the system of tenure of agricultural land, including a study of alternatives to tenancy,” said Lord Gill.

“The effect of the 2016 act is to reinforce the position of secure tenants and to make the landowners even more reluctant to let their land.”

The former advocate went on to call into question the effectiveness of the Agricultural Holdings Legislation Review Group which was led by former cabinet secretary for rural affairs and the environment, Richard Lochhead.

"The review that was carried out was too narrow in its focus and it did not have enough time to do the task fully," Lord Gill explained.

"Current holdings legislation had been subjected to sporadic reform, at best, and often seems to be based on party politics and is usually prompted by some current controversy – ever since the 1948 Act had brought in wide-ranging changes aimed at increasing the country’s food security after the Second World War.

“Over the past 70 years, farming has undergone far-reaching structural change and the strategic priorities of today are not the same as those of a war-ravaged economy.”

He said that while the cause of the long-running issues in the sector had been recognised by legislators, this had only dealt with the effects of the situation – they had failed to address what had caused them in the first place.

“What the new bill is effectively trying to do is to treat the symptoms without trying to cure the illness,” added Lord Gill.

Stressing that it appeared to be a lack of confidence among landowners to let land out that was at the root of the problem, he indicated that while swinging the pendulum in favour of the tenant might help those already in tenancies, it also acted to reduce the numbers of new leases being granted by landowners.

With any traditional tenancies which ended most likely to be farmed in hand, this was a major factor in the current decline of the tenanted sector.

He said the lack of confidence among landowners was due to fears they would lose access and control of their land through the creation of secure tenancies – along with the continued perceived threat of right to buy.

He believes that “absolute right to buy” legislation had not gone away and was damaging confidence to let, and he highlighted the damage done to interference in settled contracts between landlords and tenants, saying that the 2016 Act is making it worse.

He pointed out loopholes in some of the current assignation recommendations, such as an inability to dispute agreements if tenants fail to gain a required qualification. Lord Gill also believed that it was unjust that newly assigned tenancies to distant relatives could be swiftly relinquished, forcing landlords to buy them back or sell them on the open market. He believed these sold tenancies would be worth halfway between the value of fully tenanted land and vacant property.