Crofting chief: We want to make industry easier

The new chief executive of the Crofting Commission says the statutory body wants to help make it easier for people to work in the sector.

Crofting is a system of land tenure and farming unique to Scotland, and has had its own legislation for almost 140 years.

Gary Campbell said the commission wanted to be more efficient in its handling of crofting regulations, and do better at tackling issues around absentee crofters.

About 33,000 people live on crofts across the Hebrides, Highlands, Argyll and Northern Isles.

Mr Campbell, a chartered accountant whose family have a croft in Taynuilt, Argyll, said the Crofting Commission handled up to 2,500 regulatory applications a year.

These include requests for changes of ownership, creating new crofts and also decrofting, which means removing land from a crofting tenure.

Mr Campbell said the Covid pandemic had caused a backlog in paperwork but the pace of the applications process had almost returned to pre-pandemic levels.

He told BBC Alba's An Là programme: "One of the things we are looking at in terms of changes is trying to make sure that process is as efficient as possible.

"I don't want to say as fast as possible, but efficient and correct."

The commission is also keen to further tackle a long-running problem of absentee crofters - tenants who do not live on their croft or assign it to someone else.

Mr Campbell said this year would see follow-up visits made to crofts rented by people who had not filled in the commission's annual census over a number of years.

He said some absentee crofters might be keeping their heads down and hoping not to be found out because they were worried their crofts would be taken off them.

"That's not the case at all. We want to work with crofting communities, not against them," he said.

Options available to absentee crofters included assigning a croft to someone else, or subletting all or part of a croft for a period of up to 10 years.

Mr Campbell said a new crofting reform bill due to go through the Scottish Parliament next year should bring further changes to the industry, including allowing people to borrow on a crofting tenure.

He said: "That is something you cannot do at the moment. We are trying to make things a bit easier."

Mr Campbell said the Crofting Commission had been criticised in the past for not doing enough to encourage more people into the industry.

But he said in the year up to March 2023, there were 510 new entrants - the highest number for five years.

Mr Campbell said: "Half were female and almost 30% were under the age of 40.

"The crofting dynamic is pretty healthy."