Crown Estate Scotland offers to sell farms to tenants

Tenant farmers on two estates owned by Crown Estate Scotland are being given the chance to buy their holdings.

The corporation, which manages 30,000 acres in Scotland, is raising capital for reinvestment by selling farms on the Applegirth Estate in Dumfriesshire and Auchindoun Estate in Moray.

Initially, land is being offered for sale across these two estates, but if this pilot is successful, the initiative could be extended to other estates in Crown Estate Scotland’s portfolio.

See also: Tenancy and rents advice on fwi.co.uk

Tenants have four options

Buying their farms at an agreed price is just one of four options being offered to eligible tenants on those two estates.

Other options include relinquishing the tenancy for a value guided by the Land Reform Act 2016 or to agree to a joint sale of the farm to a third party on an agreed share basis.

There will also be the option of maintaining the status quo, where the tenant continues to farm the land with the Crown Estate as the landlord.

The Scottish Tenant Farmers Association (STFA) said Crown Estate Scotland was making history as the first large-scale landlord to give tenants such an open range of voluntary options.

This, said STFA chairman Christopher Nicholson, had been done following detailed consultation with tenants and their representatives.

“In general, tenants are enthusiastic about the proposed farm sales and the opportunities they are to be offered,’’ he said.

Concern over break up of estates 

However, some had expressed concern about the fragmentation of the rural estate following the sale of farms, especially if the majority of remaining tenants are non-secure tenants with fixed-term leases.

With pressures from forestry, fixed-term tenants are concerned about their future when renegotiating new leases to continue farming their holdings, said Mr Nicholson.

However, reassurances have been given to tenants that Crown Estate Scotland would continue to act as a “responsible landlord’’, fulfilling its statutory and traditional obligations to its tenants, whatever the type of lease, Mr Nicholson added.

STFA recommends that tenants on the Applegirth and Auchindoun Estates take good professional advice on the options being offered to them, particularly in the negotiation of the purchase price or in agreeing a settlement for relinquishing the tenancy.