Guidance on flood resilience
October saw the Environment Agency publish new guidance on improving flood resilience, highlighting the challenges facing farming businesses from extreme weather. For landlords and tenants, this potentially raises some important considerations. Who is responsible for maintaining drainage infrastructure? What happens when flooding affects the productivity of agricultural land? And how should investment in improvements be approached?
Changes to National Planning Policy Framework
It is encouraging to see the recent changes to the NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework) taking a more positive approach towards agricultural workers' dwellings, particularly in recognising the needs of the next generation taking over farming businesses. The framework has been amended to include not only a rural worker but also those taking majority control of a farm business to live permanently at or near their place of work. Hopefully, this will create greater opportunities for farm succession and help support the long-term future of family farms.
SFI26 Window 2
Figures released by Defra on last week show that around 9,700 applications from SFI26 Window 2 are still awaiting agreement offers. Of the 12,200 applications received, approximately 2,500 offers have been issued, with only 36% of these agreements currently live.This is a significant contrast to Window 1, where approximately 6,600 offers have been issued from 6,700 applications, with 95% of agreements now started.
Budget pressure affects Agency sales
In the run-up to last week’s Budget, our Agency team, alongside many colleagues across the conveyancing sector, worked exceptionally hard to progress and complete transactions ahead of the announcement. Although the indications were that the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) rules would remain unchanged, there was naturally no guarantee that this would be the case and the potential implications were simply too significant to take any chances. As it turned out, the CGT rules remained unchanged. While the uncertainty surrounding the Budget undoubtedly added pressure and accelerated timelines for many, taking a cautious and proactive approach was, in our view, absolutely the right decision.
Presidency of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers
Our Senior Partner, Mike Taylor, was invested this month as President of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV). Quite an accolade for us as a small business and we are immensely proud of the work he is doing to support our industry and continue to spread the net wide to attract youngsters into the profession. Mike’s focus for the year will be the ongoing development and retention of staff in the industry and commitment to life-long learning.
Livestock trade
October has seen dairy cattle prices continue to soar, with £4,000 becoming an increasingly common hammer price. Calf numbers have reached their autumn peak, with trade easing as more calves come onto the market. Beef cattle prices continue to rise amid short supplies, while store stock is plentiful as suckled calf sales get into full swing.