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ALLAN CLOSES WHITBREAD CROFTING LOOPHOLE |
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09/06/2010 |
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Western Isles SNP MSP, Alasdair Allan, has today successfully moved an amendment to the Crofting Reform Bill which closes an infamous loophole in crofting law. The so-called "Whitbread" loophole has allowed speculation in inbye crofting land in the past by allowing croft land to be passed to people who have no intention of it being used either for crofting or for housing crofters’ families. Dr Allan submitted an amendment to the Crofting Reform Bill, which was going through Stage 2 proceedings in the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs and Environment Committee today. This amendment removes the "sale by nominee" or Whitbread anomaly, a loophole has been of more use to housing developers than to crofting in the past in some areas. Alasdair Allan commented: "Today the Rural Affairs Committee accepted the case for dealing with this anomaly, which has existed since a court ruling in 1992. "The amendment does not affect crofters’ right to assign crofts or to inherit them, but it does restrict the right to use the "sale by nominee" procedure. As I argued today in Parliament, this procedure was never designed to allow anyone to pass crofting land to housing developers. From now on, if the Crofting Reform Bill is passed into law, this amendment will restrict the right to appoint nominees to within the crofter's family. "I have been contacted by quite a number of crofters themselves about this issue, as well as by the West Harris Trust who, as a community landlord, are anxious to ensure that land remains in crofting and that we address, at least in part, the prohibitive cost of house plots. “I was very pleased to receive cross support for this amendment in committee today. I hope that this is a further improvement to the legislation which the Government is bringing forward in the Crofting Reform Bill, which is still very much a work in progress. .We now need to wait until Stage 3 in the parliamentary process before the Bill is in its final form.”
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