SEBG News Archive
Earl sends adapt-or-die warning to scots estates
16th October 2004A Clarion call has been given to Scotland's estate owners to either adapt their ways - or face an uncertain future and yet more legislation.
The warning comes from the Earl of Seafield, the new chairman of the Scottish Estates Business Group.
He told the Press and Journal that landowners had to recognise the days of working in secrecy had gone and that they had to ensure greater involvement in all their activities. That includes actively engaging with the communities in which they operate.
Cullen-based Lord Seafield, 65, owns 88,000 acres in Banffshire and on Speyside. Much of the ground in Banffshire is farmed, with most of the 5,000 acres in-hand given over to cereal production. The remainder is tenanted, while the majority of his estate at Strathspey is hill and moorland. The land has been in the family since the 1400s.
The Eaton-educated earl, who studied agriculture at Cirencester, has been running the estates for the last 40 years, and has no plans to retire.
Lord Seafield said estates were like businesses and had to be run the same way - efficiently.
That has been particularly so in the last six years with the downturn in the forestry and arable sectors - both of which play a major role in Lord Seafield's business activities.
Estates also, like businesses, had to recognise that their decisions could have a significant impact locally.
Lord Seafield's policy is to actively involve all sides. He is proud of the relationship he has with his tenant farmers and the way that they and the estate work in partnership, often to the benefit of each other.
He was one of the instigators of the SEBG, formed several years ago by a group of forward-thinking landowners as the Scottish Parliament debated its then new land reform and agricultural holdings legislation.
Lord Seafield said: "It was felt there was a certain misrepresentation of landowners. Yes, some landowners do severely need reprimanded, and just as in life there is a bad apple in every basket.
" But what we felt was important was that we needed to harmonise relations with the Scottish Executive, civil servants, the local communities, MSPs and fringe groups."
Just as it did in setting up the Tenant Farming Forum - designed to prevent problems becoming festering sores that cause frustration and ill-feeling between landowners and their tenants - the SEBG wants to ensure estate owners can be understood and their voice added to what has been an often one-sided debate.
Lord Seafield said: "This is not a them-and-us scenario. We all have to live together and work together. If we do not do that then we may as well all give up."
Seafield Estates employs 58 staff and has a turnover of more than £2million.
Lord Seafield believes it is important the wider public understand the issues facing landowners and remains worried that the Scottish Parliament might yet clamp down on traditional shooting and fishing.
But he is quick to point out that both generate millions annually for the Scottish economy. Both pursuits also have a loyal following among a huge cross-section of society. "They are not just the preserve of aristocrats and retired colonels."
Grouse shooting is a significant income generator for many parts of the Highlands, but bird numbers have fallen. Seafield had to cancel 15 of the 17 days it let because of poor bird numbers - a move that meant the local economy lost the £800 that would have been paid on each occasion to beaters.
Lord Seafield considers himself fortunate in living and working in the countryside. His mission remains to hand over the estates to his family in a better position than when he took them over.
He added: "The most important thing we have as landowners to remember is that we are here to help communities, not hinder them, and that is vitally important. The days of secrecy and not being open are over - and that's not a bad thing either."
Lord Seafield wants to achieve two milestones in the coming years - helping repopulate rural areas and securing 7,000 acres at Kinveachy on Speyside as a showpiece for conservation.
Detailed negotiations are being held by the estate, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Forestry Commission and the Deer Commission for Scotland to realise that dream.
Plans are also foot to develop vacant areas on the estates. That involves working with local authorities to identify opportunities to repopulate rural areas.
He has two sons - Lord Reidhaven, 40, and Alexander Ogilvie-Grant, 38 - and two grandchildren.
He still hopes that in Scotland the importance of landowners in the wider economy will finally be recognised, just as they have in Sweden, where after 15 years of open hostility to those who own land are now taken seriously and play an active role in everyday Swedish life. But to achieve that in Scotland, landowners will, as in Sweden, have to prove their worth.
Lord Seafield said: "If we can do that then perhaps, they (the politicians) will allow us to continue without further interference. If we do not do that, then there will be further legislation."
