The findings of the landmark Agricultural Holdings Legislation Review Group had their first public airing at the NFU Scotland annual meeting in St Andrews.
Obviously it is early days, but the questioning directed to review group member and agricultural lawyer Hamish Lean was far from negative.
There are pinch points among the 49 recommendations made by the AHLRG three weeks ago chief among them the proposal not to grant absolute right to buy to secure tenants.
Mr Lean was adamant that the right decision had been made on this.
“We have made an attempt once and for all to put to bed the issue of ARTB. We were very clear that the concept is not and would not be helpful in furthering Scottish Government’s vision for tenant farming,” he said forcefully.
That vision includes reversing the decline in the tented sector.
Around 23% of Scotland’s agricultural land is rented, but the area has declined by a hefty 42% since 1982.
“We have one of the lowest proportions of tenanted land in Europe,” Mr Lean said.
He very much favoured promoting productive relationships between landlords and tenants, and the creation of modern limited duration tenancies (LDTs) of a minimum term of 10 years.
This brought some criticism from the audience over the proposed disappearance of the quite widely used short limited duration tenancies (SLDTs).
Mr Lean acknowledged that these had been used since they were introduced in 2003, but the group felt 10-year terms were the minimum if incoming tenants were to be encouraged to invest.
There were, however, proposals which would allow for cropping and grazing leases.
Angus McCall, past chairman of the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association, asked Mr Lean if the proposed changes allowing assignation of leases for value had been checked out.
They had already been challenged by landowner body Scottish Land and Estates, and Mr McCall did not want to see a repeat of the Salvesen/Riddell case where reference to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had led to lengthy legal disputes.
Mr Lean replied: “Well, no lawyer is ever going to say that anything is watertight, and I can’t say there will never be a reference to the ECHR. We do think, however, that our proposals are robust.”
One of the main proposals in the AHLRG report centres on allowing secure 1991 Act tenants to assign their tenancy on the open market for value on the condition that it converts to an LDT with a minimum term of 35 years.
“This should help older tents who cannot see a way out and are probably carrying on but not farming as well as they could be.
“An open market should allow in new blood and innovation,” Mr Lean said.
Asked what value Mr Lean expected such an assigned tenancy might have, he said the market would decide, but the level of fixed equipment on the unit would have a considerable bearing.