News

This blog by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 5th November 2020. England today joins Wales and Northern Ireland with new country-wide restrictions on social and economic life while Scotland’s Tiers were introduced on Tuesday, all responding to a rising Covid-19 incidence. Each country has struck its own difficult balance between disease control and continuity of activity and business. Ireland, France, Belgium and others have taken severe measures. This English lockdown...

A meeting tomorrow is to review the developing situation with the pandemic, including the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday evening of England-wide restrictions. We will circulate briefing after that on the approach being taken. With plans laid for the examinations to be held remotely, all candidates were e-mailed last week to ask them to: arrange a venue where they could take the papers in examination conditions test their link to the portal being used for this confirm to the...

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 29th October 2020. With barely 60 days to the end of the EU transition period, we need to look at the dynamics for business change as domestic policies take effect. All new schemes – productivity, resilience, land management, environment, animal welfare and so on – would be funded from the one pot of money, level until 2024, putting Basic Payment rates under pressure. The potential rewards from...

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 22nd October 2020. The coronavirus pandemic and the measures to manage it perplex the more as it goes on. All, including government, are trying to understand it as it evolves while, over time, the challenge in balancing business and health seems to become more difficult. It now looks more complex than the simple hit and then recovery, with a V-shaped model for the economy, assumed at first. “Herd immunity” seems distant...

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 8th October 2020. Over 4 years after the Referendum, we seem finally to be on the brink of new policies being introduced after the EU transition period ends with New Year’s Eve, with increasing effects on clients and for professional work for them. The Agriculture Bill, providing policy powers for DEFRA, Wales and Northern Ireland, is in its final stages before Royal Assent, perhaps completed in the next few days....

Having an arbitrator is about to be made more practical, as the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV) launches its service Facilitating Dispute Resolution. The Agriculture Bill is to give the CAAV the power to appoint arbitrators in England and Wales, meaning it can now appoint official arbitrators in farm tenancy disputes. With that proposed standing, the CAAV is also developing a broader service – launched at the CAAV’s Annual Conference - for all forms of dispute resolution...

The Welsh Government has made £7.4 million available for improving access to the countryside, investing in green infrastructure and improving sustainability. The funds will be awarded to National Parks, AONBs and Local Authorities. Further details can be found on the Welsh Government website.

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 10th September 2020. We are now 16 weeks to the end of the EU transition period. If a deal is to be in place for 1st January, it needs substantial agreement by mid-October. This week has highlighted the possibility that the negotiating mandates preclude a deal acceptable to both the UK and the EU. Aside from fisheries, the major problems are understood to lie around the relationship between future UK rules and evolving EU...

The Prince's Countryside Fund has opened registration for the Prince's Farm Resilience Programme 2020. The Programme enables family farm businesses to access free business skills and environmental training to help improve business viability. More detail can be found on the PCF website where there is a link to register interest in taking part....

England's Housing Minister Robert Jenrick has announced £11.5 billion of new funding for affordable homes in England which is intended to deliver 180,000 homes in the period to 2026. The homes will be a mix of tenures, including a new Shared Ownership model and affordable rented property. Further information can be found on the GOV.UK website.

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 3rd September 2020. Most of farming faces the same economic problems as it faced before the pandemic. The poor harvest emphasises the concerns about poor cash flow as farming goes into 2021, facing whatever may come as the EU transition period ends. That draws attention to the long run issues of poor profitability and productivity growth that might now be...