The Land Reform Bill is a "missed opportunity for Scotland", the local Scottish Conservative candidate Jamie Greene said. The criticism comes after scrutiny of the detail of the Bill and the launch of the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee's Report on the General Principles of the Bill which was announced on 4th December.
The plans, if they become law, could force landowners to sell their land if Edinburgh-based ministers decide they are not using it in the way they wish. Tax relief for sporting estates will also be brought to an end, something which some landowners have warned could jeopardise hundreds of countryside jobs.
Local Tory candidate Mr Greene said that "Earlier this year the Scottish Conservatives published alternative land reform proposals as part of a rural action plan. Those included extending rural broadband, boosting affordable housing and working with owners to ensure land was best used for the local community. Any North Ayrshire or Arran country estate or land owner should be concerned by the proposed SNP measures which could see a situation whereby you are forced to sell your land. What kind of state controlled country is Scotland becoming?"
Scottish Conservative rural affairs spokesman, Alex Fergusson, who recently visited North Ayrshire to meet with Jamie Greene added to the debate by saying that "Given that the Scottish Government has an inbuilt majority on the committee, this report is remarkably critical of the Bill as it was laid before parliament. While there are aspects we can all agree on, such as transparency of ownership, too much detail has been left to future secondary legislation for us to be sure of the impact of some of the measures within it. That has made scrutiny of the proposals – which is the primary role of the committee – extremely difficult.
"Nowhere is that more obvious than with the proposals to reintroduce sporting rates, about which the government clearly has carried out no analysis into how they will be implemented, how much they will raise, how much it will cost to implement and collect or even what the real purpose is."
He continued "However, there is now a real desire amongst all stakeholders, landowners and tenants, to achieve a long term sustainable solution bringing mutual trust back into the landlord/tenant relationship and ensuring that the Scottish tenanted sector is truly
reinvigorated. The question is whether the SNP would rather deliver a pre-election headline or a genuinely vibrant tenanted sector. They cannot achieve both by pushing this ill-thought out Bill through parliament."