Official Report search · Parliament Workbench

Chamber

Meeting of the Parliament 05 June 2013

05 Jun 2013 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Land Reform

Gibson, Rob SNP Caithness, Sutherland and Ross Watch on SPTV

I have no time for interventions—I am sorry.

The pace of land reform is quickening, not slackening, under the SNP Government. The tenant farming forum is under notice to get tenancies let or, next year, sterner measures will follow. The land reform review group has been given a wide remit and has been beset by large numbers of vested interests. Its first priority concerns land laws that were passed in 2003, which needed some years to bed in. Ten years on, that post-legislative scrutiny is under way under the Scottish Government’s plans.

As the convener of the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee, I am leading the parliamentary scrutiny of that progress and the content of the land reform review group’s work. The evidence is clear that the land reform measures that were passed under the Labour-Liberal Democrat Executive need to be simplified and amended, as has been said, to make them fit for purpose. The group points to that in its interim report.

The 2003 community right to buy has performed less than perfectly. The rules defy some applicants. The Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 2003 has, in part, required the Lord Advocate to appeal to the United Kingdom Supreme Court on the Salvesen v Riddell case. The judgment found in favour of the landlord, following a vain attempt in 2003 by the then minister, Ross Finnie, to stop notices to quit in the case of limited partnership tenancies issued during the passage of the bill that became the 2003 act. Such matters will have to be addressed within the next year, because of that judgment. Land reform must therefore be taken forward.

I wonder whether Labour is interested in addressing a subject that it has not yet discussed: the way in which the Crown Estate operates. Will we look at that? We have heard nothing from Labour about taking control of the Crown Estate.

The Labour-Liberal Democrat Executive introduced the Cairngorms National Park Boundary Bill, which excluded north Perthshire. Could it not stomach having an SNP-led Perth and Kinross Council in the set-up? It took the minority SNP Government in 2007 to put that right, without opposition. I am sure that Labour could work with the SNP and other parties to address the core issues if it wished to do so.

To further that work, the European convention on human rights is key. It must be used to challenge on the basis of the public interest—a challenge that can be made only if we speak together with a united voice. That could help Scots to gain ownership of, access to and use of our land resources. Meanwhile, arbitrary bouts of platform rhetoric must be tempered by reasoned policy development, which must be the central Government approach. I ask others to engage to make that united voice heard.

15:07

Search Hansard contributions

Meeting of the Parliament 05 June 2013

In the same item of business