News

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has today announced her new Cabinet. Richard Lochhead MSP remains as the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment. Further details are available on the Scottish Government website.

The Prime Minister has supported proposals in Sir David Higgins' latest report to develop "HS3" - a high speed rail link between northern cities to improve east-west connections. The Government press release can be found on the GOV.UK website. The Higgins report is expected to be published later today (Monday 27th October 2014).

Natural England's website has moved over to GOV.UK as part of the alignment of all Government bodies in one website. The Natural England pages can be accessed from www.gov.uk/government/organisations/natural-england.

The RPA has published the results of their latest annual customer satisfaction. Further information is available on the GOV.UK website.

The RPA has changed its telephone number prefix from 0845 to 0345 in a move away from higher rate telephone numbers. The new number for the RPA CSC is 0345 603 7777. The 0845 and 0345 numbers will run concurently until 1st October 2014. After 1st October, only the 0345 numbers will be available. Further information is available on the RPA page on GOV.UK.

The Badger Trust has been granted permission to appeal the High Court ruling against it that found it was lawful for the Secretary of State to have decided to go ahead with the badger cull pilots without a panel of independent experts. Further information is available on the Badger Trust website.

It has been confirmed earlier today that the next EU Agriculture Commissioner will be Fine Gael's Phil Hogan. The proposed new Commission will be considered at a plenary session of the European Parliament in October where it could be appproved or rejected. It is due to take up office from 1st November 2014.

Bookings for this year's Young Valuers' Conference in Leicestershire have been extended to this Thursday 11th September. Don't miss out on what is always an extremely enjoyable event and useful networking opportunity. Further information and booking form are available in the Events section of this website.

There is not long left to book your place at the 11th CAAV Young Valuers Conference which is taking place at the Hinckley Island Hotel, Leicestershire on Friday 19th September. Bookings close on Friday 5th September, so don't miss out on attending this highly popular event for our members aged 40 and under. This is an excellent event which offers 6 hours CPD (including a visit to the Arbury Estate), along with a drinks reception and Medieval banquet in the historical Coombe Abbey's Abbeygate...

Liz Truss MP replaces Owen Paterson as Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the Cabinet Reshuffle announced on Tuesday 15th July. Mrs Truss is the MP for South West Norfolk and was previously the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Education.

"Putting Success into Succession" was the theme of the CAAV Annual Conference, held in Grantham, Lincolnshire on 26th and 27th June 2014 and hosted by CAAV President James O'Brien of Brown and Co. Members and guests enjoyed visits to Lincoln Cathedral and Doddington Estate on the Thursday, followed by a black tie dinner at Belton Woods Hotel. On Friday a range of speakers from agriculture, academia and the professions discussed the importance of succession planning for farm businesses and...

Members have reported receiving suspicious email which purports to come from Land Registry, seeking payment. Land Registry are aware of the scam and have information on their website about the issue. Caution is advised in dealing with any such email, particularly in respect of attachments, which may contain harmful viruses or malware.