Crofting Commission welcomes legal decision

THE CROFTING Commission has welcomed the decision made by Highland Council’s planning, development and infrastructure committee to remove the use of legal agreements under section 75 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 when issuing planning permission on croft land in the hinterland.

Crofting Commission chief executive Catriona Maclean said: ‘ This is good news for many crofters in the hinterland.

‘ The review of this policy will help crofters to secure loan finance for building a home as the existence of section 75 agreements is problematic for many lenders.

‘This change, along with increased support in the Croft House Grant Scheme and the Highland Self- Build Loan Fund, provides important financial assistance to attract and retain people in our crofting communities and also in helping crofters to fulfil their duty of living on or close to their croft.

‘Access to housing is one of the five crofting priorities the commission and other stakeholders presented to the crofting minister at the end of last year as an essential component to secure the future of the crofting system.

‘The Crofting Commission recognises the difficulties faced by crofters who want to build homes on their crofts and we have taken a number of steps to support them. We have had discussions with banks and mortgage lenders to try to ease the difficulties crofters have in obtaining finance and we held a planning summit with local authorities from across the crofting counties to highlight the needs of crofters and how we can balance housing need with land management.

‘We welcome the head of planning at Highland Council Mr Macleod’s desire to work with the commission on this matter and we are extremely pleased that the council recognises the positive contribution that crofters make to the sustainability of both the rural economy and communities.’