Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) has submitted a response to the National Council of Rural Advisors’ consultation on rural development post-Brexit, branding it as shallow and lacking substance.
“It is all well and good to go over the same old issues of what is holding rural Scotland back” said Russell Smith, Chair of the Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF), “but we were hoping that this consultation would be about how Brexit will affect rural development in Scotland and what a Rural Economic Strategy will need to look like to cope with the inevitable changes. The remit of the National Council of Rural Advisors (NCRA) is ‘to provide evidence-based advice on the implications of Scotland leaving the EU and to recommend future actions that could sustain a vibrant and flourishing rural economy’. The consultation itself doesn’t frame any questions in the context of Brexit but rather focuses on problems that exist despite Brexit and doesn’t offer any suggested solutions to further problems that Brexit will bring. It therefore comes across as being shallow and lacking substance.”
https://www.crofting.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/scfncraresponse.pdf