The request from the Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) for increased assistance to build croft houses came as no surprise.
Fifteen years ago we were reporting fears that the Crofters' Building Grants and Loan Scheme (CBGLS) was being left to wither on the vine.
It had been seen as the single most successful Government measure in keeping people living on their land in the Highlands and Islands. Without it there would have been even greater depopulation.
But in the year 2000 crofters' leaders were warning that it was worth almost £10,000 less to crofters building a house than it had been 10 years previously when it had last been increased. Now the SCF reckons its successor scheme was a fifth or sixth of the value.
In May 1996, The Herald revealed that Scottish Office officials had proposed to then Secretary of State Michael Forsyth that the loan element be removed and a means test introduced. This would have left crofters to raise the money commercially despite the reluctance of banks and buildings societies to lend on croft land.
This was not a new move. Internal Scottish Office memos showed that officials had first unveiled the proposals in 1994 to the then Agriculture Minister Sir Hector Monro who rejected them. Secretary of State Ian Lang was no more enthusiastic.
It was never taken any further until Mr Forsyth arrived in St Andrew's House. But despite his views on public spending, he also decided against cutting the scheme.
The scheme was relaunched by Rural Affairs Minister Ross Finnie in the autumn of 1999 and was largely welcomed for its expansion to include people such as those living in council houses who were trying to build croft houses.
But the levels of the revised scheme were less impressive. The rates for grant and loan for building a house were to remain at £11,500 and £17,500 respectively, exactly what they were in 1990, since then the value of the £29,000 package had dropped by around £10,000. Before 1990 the rates were regularly reviewed and increased.
These levels of support remained unchanged until 2004 when CBGLS was abolished by the Lab/Lib Dem Scottish Executive and replaced by the Croft House Grant Scheme (CHGS). The loan element was done away with and road and water supply costs ceased to be supported.
Now a Scottish Government review is suggesting a £6,000 increase which is seen by most as not nearly enough. That is hardly surprising given that in 2008, SCF calculated that the rate of support had declined from 82% (in 1986) to 14% of the total build costs and this decline has continued since 2008.
Many will ask why crofters should be blessed with any public support for building their homes, when the vast majority of us received absolutely nothing.
Well a crofter is statutorily required to live on or within 20 miles of his/her croft. Where there is no house on the croft, or as often is the case the existing house is inadequate, the crofter usually has no alternative but to build a new house or upgrade the existing house to comply with the residency duty crofting law demands. So if the crofting system is to continue, which all Holyrood parties agree it should, there has to be some support.
It has been notoriously difficult or indeed nearly impossible for crofters to get mortgages. Not least because lenders do not want to go near the complexities of the unique system of land tenure. So crofters are dismissed out of hand. Although if the banks and building societies took the trouble to study the crofting system, they would discover crofters are no greater risk than many they have been happy to lend to down the years. Indeed in many cases a significantly better risk.
SCF chair Fiona Mandeville sent a message to ministers this week: "While even minimally increased grant rates are welcome, a grant is just one component of funding a new croft house. There remains the significant hurdle of lenders' reluctance to make a mortgage available to crofters, due to their lack of effort to understand crofting. We urge the Scottish Government to strengthen their good intentions on crofter housing by pressing mortgage providers to look again at finding ways to offer mortgages to crofters or to reinstate a government loan."
But surely a combination of the two might be worth considering. The Scottish Government could effectively stand as guarantor for crofters' mortgages. There are only a limited number of crofters, around 12,000. Even with subdivision of some of the near 18,000 existing crofts or the creation of new ones, there will be only a relatively few who are having to build houses at any given time.
In addition there would only be a problem for the public finances if the crofter defaulted, and sanctions could be developed for such an eventuality. Meanwhile the lenders should welcome the new commercial business. Sorted!
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