Minister takes action on absenteeism in crofting

Absenteeism in widely understood to be the greatest threat to the survival of crofting. It is currently running at 10%. Of the respondents to the recent consultation on crofting reform, 90% cited absenteeism as the most important problem faced.

Today, Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham has asked the Crofting Commissioners:’to conclude cases of absenteeism that have existed for 10 years or more. This will ensure we focus resources on resolving those long outstanding cases first. The crofting community as a whole will benefit from this direct action’.

We asked what the Crofting Commission would be doing with these long running cases. The answer is that in the first instance it will be maming direct contact with croft tenants absent for more than 10 years and living more than 16 kilmotres from their croft.

The hope is that, as a matter of honour, once this contact is made, the long absent tenants will themselves ask for their tenancy to be terminated.

Where this amicable outcome is not reached, the Commission has the powers under existing and proposed legislation to terminate crofting tenancies.

They can also require the landowner to put in a new tenant on an untenanted croft.

The proposed changes in the Crofting Reform Bill will see a croft tenants able to ask permission of the Crofting Commission to be absent from their croft – for good reason, for a specific period of time. This will cover, for instance, people with parallel jobs (worked to sustain a living for a crofting family), where the non-crofting job requires working away from home for an extended time.

Crofting is an important way of life in Scotland’s remote rural and island heartlands, Argyll has seen a revival of crofting on the Isle of Jura in particular, where some new crofts have been established and young families are bringing new energies to island life.