Award of RESAS/016/20 – Tenant Farming Rent Satisfaction Survey

Introduction1. The Scottish Government wishes to commission a research project comprising the design and completion of a survey of 1000 tenant farmers in Scotland.2. The survey will explore levels of satisfaction among tenant farmers with the process of rent reviews and the cost of renting agricultural land, in relation to recommended changes to agricultural holdings legislation proposed by the Agricultural Holdings Legislation Review Group (AHLRG) in their Final Report, titled ‘Review of Agricultural Holdings Legislation’ (2015) and brought forward in The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016.3. The specification sets out the aims of the work, and the tasks required of the contractor. It also sets out the management arrangements and timescales.Background & Context4. As more than one-fifth (22%) of all farmed land in Scotland is rented, tenant farming represents an important part of Scottish agriculture.5. In 2014, the Scottish Government (SG) published a report titled ‘Views of Tenant Farmers and Agricultural Landlords on Aspects of the Agricultural Tenancy System’. This was in line with a ministerial-led review of Agricultural Holdings legislation carried out by the Agricultural Holdings Legislation Review Group (AHLRG). As part of this review, in 2014 SG commissioned Ipsos MORI to survey tenant farmers and agricultural landlords in Scotland.6. A total of 5,581 tenant farmers were contacted, with 1,002 surveyed by phone (with quotas set for region and farm type), giving a response rate of 18%.7. Overall, when asked to rate their satisfaction with their current tenancy, 77% of tenant farmers reported that they were satisfied (33% very satisfied, 44% fairly satisfied), with 11% saying that they were dissatisfied, and a further 11% who were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. A minority of tenant farmers and landlords had experienced a major dispute with their landlord/tenant. Disputes were most likely to be related to rent review, fixed equipment and other interests e.g. diversification of the business.8. A more recent survey conducted by the Tenant Farming Commissioner in 2018 of 914 tenants found that both tenant farmers and landlords were generally positive about their relationship with the other party (54% of tenant farmers said that the relationship was very good; 28% said fairly good; and 6% stated it was poor).9. The 2014 SG report also contained data on rent reviews, in terms of their frequency, timing and who carries out reviews. Both tenant farmers and landlords reported broadly similar experiences. Further to this, the 2018 survey by the Tenant Farming Commissioner showed that half of all respondents (50%) did not believe that the conduct of agents affected their relationship with their landlord. However, 20% stated that it worsened the relationship.10. In 2015, the AHLRG published its Final Report, titled ‘Review of Agricultural Holdings Legislation’. It detailed specific aims and objectives which reflected areas where feedback to the SG indicated a degree of stakeholder dissatisfaction. One of the factors it placed particular emphasis on was the process for agreeing fair and reasonable rents.11. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 brought forward a number of the recommended changes to current agricultural holdings legislation proposed by the AHLRG in their Final Report. One element was to introduce a new Rent Review process. Officials have been working with stakeholders for over four years to design a new process. However, during these discussions it has become apparent that this may not be needed as there are high levels of acceptance that the current system is close to what is required.12. We, thus, wish to commission a research project comprising a survey of tenant farmers, to build on the survey conducted previously, specifically by exploring tenant farmers’ levels of satisfaction with the process of rent reviews and the cost of renting agricultural land. This data will used for Parliamentary evidence, Ministerial statements and future policy development.