Steps that must be taken for crofting to thrive post Brexit
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From the Croft column by Russell Smith
As I write, we still don’t know whether we will get a Brexit deal or not.
The UK Government seems to think that you can have all the benefits of being in a club without paying a membership fee or obeying the current and future rules – ignorance, arrogance or incompetence?
Either way, we are ill-served by our elected representatives in Westminster. If an MP’s pension was linked to the average price of a wether lamb at Lairg, then they might not be so cavalier with the livelihoods of others.
The Scottish Crofting Federation were part of a meeting with Michael Gove and George Eustice recently where they claimed everything would be fine – then outlined measures to support the sheep industry if prices fell and how seafood trucks would be fast tracked through Kent so they could get to European markets in time. What an admission of failure that a policy that the UK has chosen for itself might need such mitigation.
But let’s look forward to 2021. What do we need to see for crofting to thrive? (apart from a Brexit deal and a Covid-19 vaccine for all, obviously).
We need a Crofting Law bill to go through Holyrood to tidy up the law.
There is a bill just about ready but it has been delayed due to time taken up in Parliament by Brexit legislation.
We need detail from the Scottish Government about agriculture support payments after the current pledges run out.
Agreeing anything will be a lengthy process so the sooner we begin the better.
In particular we need a replacement for LFASS which targets the truly less favoured areas rather than the over 80 per cent of Scotland that gets it just now. We have been promised action in the spring.
We need a focus on good quality local food. Red meat is being criticised in some quarters so we must get the message across that lamb and beef extensively grazed on land that can’t be used for other food production is actually good for the environment (and underpins a lot of remote communities).
We need measures to retain young people in Sutherland to keep our schools and communities vibrant.
This could mean creating jobs, making new crofts available, building affordable houses, getting broadband to everybody, improving roads.
We need the Crofting Commission to be resourced to follow up on the absentee crofters that they already know about, so that land can go to people who want to invest in the area and be active in crofting and their communities.
We need some joined up thinking from the Scottish Government and Highland Council on planning and on the balance between agriculture and tree planting for carbon capture.
Some more toilets on the North Coast 500 would help, too.
We need more local democracy and a fairer system of land ownership so that decisions that affect communities are made by the people who live in the communities. The environment is important but so are people and jobs.
And we need good weather in April regardless of whether we have a deal with the European Union or not.
All the best for 2021.
Russell Smith is a crofter in Bonar Bridge and a director of the Scottish Crofting Federation.
