Crofting tenure under
threat from SNP

Crofting tenure under threat from SNP

3rd MAY

Donald John MacSween, the Labour candidate for the Western Isles, has warned that crofting tenure faces its biggest threat in 120 years as a result of the Scottish Government’s decision to equalise rights between tenants and owner-occupiers.

He said it was a speculator’s charter and struck at the very heart of the crofting system. The SNP-controlled administration had clearly stated its intention to encourage a wholesale movement from tenure to individual ownership at which point the whole basis of crofting tenure would be finished, he said.

He called for a last stand in defence of crofting tenure and condemned the current MP and MSP for the Western Isles over their silence on the issue.

‘As with so many things, we do not know if they are for it or against it. They just stay dumb and hope that nobody asks them any questions,’ said Mr MacSween.

Ninety five per cent of crofters in the Western Isles are tenants. The Labour candidate asked whether their elected representatives, who are in the same party as the current Scottish government, should be at the forefront of this debate instead of hiding in a corner with nothing to say.

‘Do Mr MacNeil and Mr Allan support what Roseanna Cunningham is doing or do they oppose it? Surely they can answer that straightforward question,’ asked Mr MacSween.

Removal of means testing for owner-occupiers would mean that every absentee, speculator or individual, who was in dispute with the majority within a crofting community could simply opt out of the system without any disincentive from doing so.

He added: ‘It is a fantasy that the Crofters Commission will regulate the behaviour of owner-occupiers when they have failed so dismally in the past to enforce the legislation as it stands.’