Champion for tenant farming in Scotland named

The person tasked with improving the relationship between farm landlords and tenants in Scotland has been named as retired civil servant Bob McIntosh.

Dr McIntosh has been appointed tenant farming commissioner and will take up his place alongside five land commissioners on the first Scottish Land Commission.

The land commission is due to be operational from April 2017 and has been established as part of the implementation of the Land Reform Scotland Act (2016).

See also: Scotland seeks to end farm rent review bad behaviour

Evidence

Its role will be to conduct studies and research into the effect of law, policies and practices, which will help form evidence for any future land reform introduced by the Scottish government.

The commission’s remit will extend to urban and rural land in Scotland and will cover all matters relating to land, including ownership, land rights, land management and the use of land.

Relationship work

The tenant farming commissioner has been asked to work with the main stakeholder organisations within the industry to try to improve relationships between landlords and tenants.

He will be responsible, among other things, for establishing codes of practice, providing practical guidance to landlords and tenants of agricultural holdings, promoting the use of any codes and keeping them under regular review.

The six commissioners will be as follows:

• Andew Thin – the government’s independent adviser on tenant farming. He has extensive experience as a non-executive chairman, particularly through the establishment of the Cairngorm National Park Authority and a long stint at Scottish Natural Heritage.
• David Adams – senior academic with significant experience of planning and development, land reform and urban issues. He was an adviser to the Land Reform Review Group, particularly on work on urban issues and is professor of property and urban studies at Glasgow University.
• Lorne MacLeod – chartered accountant by trade, he is also commercial director of a retail and distribution business on Skye. Chairman of Community Land Scotland and a board member of Storas Uibhist.
• Sally Reynolds – co-ordinates the Lewis and Harris Greylag Goose Management Scheme on behalf of SNH. An active crofter and livestock keeper, she contributes to a number of activities which benefit the community. An agricultural consultant (with a PhD in mathematical ecology), she is also development officer for the Carloway Estate Trust on Lewis.
• Megan MacInnes – currently on maternity leave and she is also working part-time and remotely as a land adviser to Global Witness, a London-based non-governmental organisation (NGO). Her experience includes having worked in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos for respected NGOs and with governments and large agribusiness companies to improve protection of land rights.
• Bob McIntosh –  A retired civil servant with extensive experience in public policy, in particular in land management and forestry, Bob was the Scottish government’s director for environment and forestry between 2012 and 2015, and before that served as the director of Forestry Commission Scotland. He has been a partner in a 263ha (650 acre) hill farm for 15 years.