Crofting: national development plan

Development Of Crofting

Following implementation of the Crofting Reform Act 2010, the Crofting Commission (Commission) replaced the former Crofters Commission and became primarily a regulatory body with promotional and reorganisation functions.

The Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 sets out the functions, powers and duties of the Commission. In addition to the main function of regulating crofting, the Commission has a number of powers including: reorganising crofting in any area where there is a need to do so, promoting the interests of crofting, and collaborating in the carrying out of any measures for the economic development and social improvement of the crofting counties.

At the same time, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) delivered community development by targeting initiatives at macro community level, rather than focusing on crofting activity alone. Whilst HIE's economic and community development work continues to add value, there were calls from stakeholder groups and individual crofters to put a specific crofting development support mechanism in place. In 2018, the Crofting Stakeholder Forum produced a paper on crofting development, detailing the reasons why the Commission should take on this role.

It is considered by the Scottish Government that the Commission, with its access to all relevant crofting data and annual census information, and its established relationship with crofters through its regulatory and promotional work, is ideally placed to take forward crofting development.

The Crofting Commission will expand its current capacity, going beyond the delivery of regulatory functions to further enhance its role in crofting development activity.