Meeting of the Parliament 26 March 2025
I am sorry, but I have to make progress.
We have to recognise that reform must be carried out in a way that is fair to all parties, is supported by evidence and is deliverable within the resources and current powers of this Parliament.
The measures in part 2 are essential reforms that are needed to deliver equality of opportunity to Scotland’s small landholders and tenant farmers. We want to offer our tenant farmers a future that we would want for ourselves—one with security and dignity at its heart. We want a vibrant tenanted sector, ensuring that we have opportunities for the next generation.
More diverse land ownership is not incompatible with those aims. All that we have to do is look to Europe and examples in France and the Republic of Ireland of how a vibrant tenanted sector can be achieved. The key difference is that they have the fiscal powers that are necessary to encourage those changes.
I will keep working with all partners and across this Parliament to ensure that momentum continues to build for a stronger, more resilient tenancy sector. The bill will ensure that tenants today and those in the future have a level playing field, enabling them to deliver improvements to the land that they farm in order to become more sustainable and productive, and enabling tenant farming families to better access the new agriculture support and rural framework so that they can play their part in delivering on key Government priorities. After all, tenant farmers make up a quarter of Scottish farmers, and our provisions in part 2 of the bill will mean that they are treated with fairness and dignity, including if they choose to leave their tenancies.
By modernising small landholder legislation, we are ensuring that no part of land tenure is left behind. The new model of lease for environmental purposes—the land management tenancy—will provide a new tool for land management, enabling people and communities to undertake a range of hybrid land management activities through one lease and helping achieve Scotland’s net zero, biodiversity, and sustainable and regenerative agriculture ambitions. The bill cannot solve all the issues that land tenure is facing, as many are outwith our control, but we remain committed to delivering a fair and vibrant tenanted sector.
Land reform is a journey. The bill offers hope; it will deliver positive progress and, in so doing, build trust with the people of Scotland. I hope that we can come together today to stand behind the bill’s principles, as they are same principles that have been supported by successive Governments since the Parliament was reconvened in 1999.
I move,
That the Parliament agrees to the general principles of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.