Land agents Bidwells will have faced many challenges on behalf of its clients since it was founded 175 years ago, but there has rarely been a portfolio of issues as bulky as now.
Andrew Wood, partner and head of the rural team in the Perth office, told a press briefing: “Putting aside the extreme challenges of the two world wars, this could certainly be our busiest period ever.
“If I was to choose one issue as a priority it would be the Scottish Government’s land reform proposals. They are ground-breaking and controversial.”
He added: “The Government has set itself the real challenge of defining the group of people who can own land and how big an individual’s landholding can be. There could be unintended consequences if this involves breaking up large estates. This could make them uneconomic.”
Mr Wood could see why there was a wish for transparency over ownership, but warned that the creation of a comprehensive land register would take at least a decade.
“It is a technical challenge, and I wonder if the resources are there to do it,” he added.
As to whether land was being used to the public benefit there would be hugely differing views, with, for example, NFU Scotland and the John Muir Trust having very different opinions.
If the land reform programme was to lead to compulsory purchase the consequences would be “quite frightening”.
Noting the target for doubling the area of land in community ownership to 1m acres, Mr Wood said he would like to see an analysis of the progress so far.
“Community owned estates are in receipt of substantial funds which others are not entitled to, so it would be interesting to quantify the benefit, “ he said.
Moving on to the imminent unveiling of the conclusions of the Agricultural Holdings Legislation Review Group, Mr Wood said he hoped for the creation of a vibrant letting sector.
“The key issue is absolute right to buy (ARTB). When Richard Lochhead revealed at the 2013 Highland Show that ARTB was back on the agenda, the impact was immediate. It caused a complete loss of confidence in letting land,” he said.
There has been much criticism of the 2003 Agriculture Holdings Act, but Mr Wood believes its basic structure of Limited Duration Tenancies (LDTs) and Short Limited Duration Tenancies (SLDTs) is “pretty good but hasn’t had a fair hearing yet”.
Scrapping them would be a mistake, he believed.
There was also scope in looking at ways of improving assignation of tenancies as a means of allowing older tenants to retire.
This could be done for value, with the range of potential assignees widened out from immediate family.
The caveat would be that a 1991 Act secure tenancy would need to convert into an LDT at the time of assignation, otherwise landlords would fear they would never be able to regain control of their land.
“I do think, though, that LDTs would need to be quite long term say 20 years to give the new tenant confidence to invest.
“With both land reform and tenancy legislation we need to see a reversal of the position where clients have actively disinvested in Scotland,” Mr Wood said.
William Telfer, agribusiness consultant with Bidwells, said his main task at the moment was seeking clarification on the new CAP.
There was a lack of guidance on the so-called negative list, which excluded certain categories of recipient.
Some estates which were primarily sporting nevertheless had substantial livestock enterprises and their status was unclear.
Mr Telfer was also concerned about the transition arrangements as the new Basic Payment Scheme moved from a historic base to an area base.
Finding out exactly what payments would be over the next five years was making budgeting difficult.
Meanwhile, Bidwell’s forestry expert Raymond Henderson, who is an advocate of mixed land use, saw “big opportunities” for his sector as CAP changes began to take effect.
“Understanding the CAP is a black art, but there may be the case that a lot of land will have nothing on it, and some of this could usefully be diverted to forestry,” he said.