DEFRA has today (10th August) published the following in relation to the SFI 2023 offer: the voluntary ‘How to do the SFI actions’ guidance some minor updates to the SFI handbook, and a summary of what’s been updated
Janet Hughes, Farming and Countryside Programme Director, and Jonathan Marsden, Head of Standards for SFI, are holding a webinar on SFI 2023 on this Thursday afternoon, 10th August at 3.30 pm to 5.00 pm. Their aim is to provide an opportunity for advisers to ask questions about the actions and guidance in the SFI 2023 Handbook before applications open. This is the registration link for this Advisers webinar. Intended for advisers only, this event precedes possible later, more sector specific...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 3rd August 2023 “Wish upon a star.” It might work in Disney films but it is no basis for engaging with reality to answer the many large challenges we face. These require focused thought, effective mechanisms, planning and logistics and sustained attention with leadership giving explanation, not magical thinking. An immediate illustration of grand aspiration meeting reality lies in HS2. The Infrastructure and Projects...
The Bank of England has announced that the Bank Rate has been increased to 5.25%, an increase by 0.25% from 5%. The vote was 6–3 in favour of the increase to 5.25%. One member preferred to maintain Bank Rate at 5% and two preferred an increase to 5.5%.
RPA MAKE OVER 80,000 ADVANCE BPS PAYMENTS The RPA yesterday (1st August) made the first part payment of Basic Payment for 2023 to 81,090 applicants (97 per cent of applicants) of which 80,554 have received the money with the balance subject to “banking holds” and the money should be released shortly. Where a payment has not yet been released, the RPA is working to pay where possible in two further payment slots in August. The payment should represent half the currently assessed sum due...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 27th July 2023 With an election next year and the problems of a seriously under-supplied housing market, the political parties are on manoeuvres over planning policies in England. Labour has been setting out an apparently pro-development stall for some months, with local housing targets, development corporations to take and develop land, breaking the “taboo” of the green belt and favouring onshore wind. The Conservative...
DEFRA has started a new blog, called Land Use: Policies and Framework. The blog is to publish updates on the work of the DEFRA Land Use team, including the Land Use Framework, Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS), Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), nutrient neutrality, and wider enhancement of the environment through the planning system. Sign up details are available on the Government website....
Last week’s CAAV E-Briefing leader ended by pointing to the opportunities for members to apply skills in advising clients on adapting to the climate change that is here and to come: “It seems sensible for property-based, resource and weather-dependent small businesses with longer term outlooks, like farms and estates, also to look ahead, especially when undertaking new projects or reviewing strategy. As trusted advisers, both bringing a wider view and knowing the property and business,...
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has launched an online tool for reporting dead wild birds. The tool is compatible with desktop and mobile applications and allows accurate reporting of the location of the find. Further information is available on the DAERA website at Wild Birds and Advice for the Public....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 20th July 2023 Setting records, Mediterranean Europe is for some days nudging 50oC (122oF) while that has been broken in parts of the USA and China. While Italian dairy farmers install fans and sprinklers for their cows, this is only two months after seven months’ rain fell on Italy’s Emilia Romagna in two days, flooding 43 towns, with over 400 landslides and displacing 50,000 people. As that shows, climate change is...
DEFRA has announced two webinars on Biodiversity Net Gain to help those looking to enter the off-site market. 2nd August, 3:30 – 4:30pm: Biodiversity Net Gain for landowners: how to get involved – suitable if you’re new to BNG, or want to understand the off-site process step by step. 7th August, 2 – 3pm: Biodiversity metric demonstration for landowners – also relevant to ecologists, learn how to use the biodiversity metric to calculate how many off-site units you can produce on...
Members working on Countryside Stewardship using the Mid Tier On-Line system will be aware that there have been technical issues with the application portal on the Rural Payments Service: see our note of 12th July. The CAAV has been engaging with DEFRA and the RPA, providing examples of the problems encountered and pressing for a swift resolution. A series of system updates to the Rural Payments Service was made on Monday evening (17th July), now found to have enabled a number of applications to...
Animal Health and Welfare Pathway - FETF The RPA has today started issuing decisions on Animal Health and Welfare grant funding agreements. Successful applicants will have until Monday 11th September to accept the agreement offered. There is a small number of applications for which further clarification is needed. We understand the the RPA is seeking to resolve outstanding points with those applicants....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 13th July 2023 Our development control system was created in 1947 in an economy depressed in the wake of war and when it was thought that “the man in Whitehall knows best”. Distinctive around the globe for its site-specific micro-management, it has been under growing strain for decades. What was intended as a technocratic process became more open and then overtaken by the popular resistance to development seen in many...
Having raised a number of members’ problems with the Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier On-Line application system with the RPA, it has now recognised that there are issues which it is tackling with its IT suppliers so that they are resolved for affected applicants. The CAAV has been told: “We are putting support in place for those affected, including measures to ensure those who experience issues are not excluded from applying.”...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 6th July 2023 The re-electrification of Britain is a key part of the net zero agenda. The broad, high level policy aims are to double the amount of electricity we use by 2050 and so to double the amount generated, all as renewable energy, powering most heat and transport. That means doubling the amount to be transmitted and distributed across the country between generation and use, across clients’ land to give the capacity...
Natural England has opened the second round of the Tees Valley Nutrient Mitigation Scheme for applications. The application window closes at 11:55pm on 28 July 2023. For more background on the scheme, which is open to those undertaking residential development in the Tees Valley catchment area, see our website note from July 2022....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 29th June 2023 The gathering winds of change for farming not only see England now well advanced in its agricultural transition but each of the three devolved areas have their new post-Basic Payment regimes come into place from 2025. Within some 32 months, DEFRA has now put in place the largest part of the key architecture for its agricultural transition: farming will now have no more direct payments, put more clearly...
DEFRA has updated the guidance on the impact of the HS2 Scheme on existing agreements under Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship. On 28th June, the window for claiming force majeure – that the agreement holder will no longer be able to complete the actions of the agreement through no fault of their own – has been extended. Those affected should write to Rural Payments Agency within 8 weeks of HS2 Ltd entering their land....
Natural England has confirmed the designation of 3,044 hectares of land in West Cornwall as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The area, known as West Penwith, includes lowland heathland, fens and dry acid grassland, lichens, wetland valley mires, as well as some surrounding 'clean' agricultural land. For more background, see our website note of 6th June....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 22nd June 2023 Something needs to wake us up about the extent of economic stagnation in the UK (and the EU) since 2008, resulting in our current crisis with low incomes in the face of costs. Not only has our flat-lining since 2008 broken from our growth trend since the eighteenth century but the USA gives a current comparison – as ever with issues - showing a strikingly different story over the last 15 years: in 2008,...
A landowner and contractor have been ordered by a judge to pay costs in excess of £255,000 for illegally felling more than 270 protected trees. The charges included fines, confiscation monies and the Council's costs. The charges related to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, with the trees subject to a Tree Preservation Order and sitting within the Clay Hill Conservation Area. The Council has served a Tree Replacement Notice for 284 trees under the Town and Country Planning (Tree...
From June 2023 onward, the Dean Organic Fund will be accepting applications for new loans from its £450,000 revolving fund.Applicants must be UK-based companies, partnerships or individuals, active in organic-certified and/or ecologically sound farming and food businessesLoan amounts will be between £5,000 and £25,000Loans will be interest-free and unsecuredLoans will be repayable over periods of no more 5 years. Repayments will normally be in monthly installments starting after the first...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 15th June 2023 We have yet really to see the scale of what is involved in the climate change already to come, in mitigating and in adapting to it with the substantial trade-offs that will be needed. With El Niño changes now in the Pacific, the expectations are of above trend world temperatures for 2024 – a taste of the future – with the potential for the UK to have a harsher winter and a hotter summer. At what point will...
The Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004 have been amended to prohibit the installation of direct emission heating systems in new buildings effective from 1st April 2024. The prohibition follows a consultation launched in August 2022 and reported in our note at the time. A zero direct emissions heating system is defined as one by which the building is heated or cooled or by which hot water is made available using thermal energy located within the building or its curtilage and which emits more...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 8th June 2023 It is hard this week not to dwell on Ukraine. The CAAV’s National Conference at Oxford on 7th July is to receive a presentation, The Impact of the War on Agricultural Valuation in Ukraine, from Victor Zayats, an agricultural specialist member of the Ukrainian Society of Appraisers. I was discussing this with him and other Ukrainian valuers on Tuesday morning just after the news of the blowing of the Kakhovka...
Funding agreements have started to be sent out to successful applicants for the Productivity and Slurry Grant 2023, which is part of the wider Farming Equipment Technology Fund (FETF) (for some background, see our website note of 9th February). DEFRA has today announced that, having received over 3,000 applications, the total level of funding for this round of the FETF has been increased from £17 million to £31 million. The Animal Health and Welfare strand of FETF 2023 remains open for...
As part of Project Gigabit, the UK Government programme to enable hard-to-reach communities to access gigabit-capable broadband, the Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland conducted an open market review (OMR) of current broadband access, which closed in early 2023. DfE have now opened a Public Review of the conclusions of the OMR, allowing members of the public to check if they have been identified for subsidy. and to comment where they believe the conclusions are incorrect. More...
DEFRA has published the dates of the application window to apply for a derogation for spreading livestock manure on grasslands in Nitrate Vulnerable Zones. Those seeking a derogation must apply between 6 June and 4 July 2023. More information is available here: Grassland derogations for livestock manure in nitrate vulnerable zones - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 1st June 2023 On Tuesday, the press carried the story that the Labour Party is proposing a change to the basis of valuation for compulsory purchase, removing hope value. Only reported in outline form, the proposal appears to be that compensation in England would be on existing use value, not market value, at least for local authorities purchasing land for house building. This comes after Keir Starmer’s speech arguing for...
Northern Ireland's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs has announced that the Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) has been lifted with effect from 2nd June 2023. The AIPZ, introduced on 17th October 2022, mandated biosecurity measures on poultry keepers. With the lifting of the AIPZ, poultry and bird gatherings are permitted. DAERA continues to encourage following the biosecurity measures set out in the AIPZ as good practice, and reminds keepers to be vigilant for signs...
The Scottish Government has opened consultations on the third phase of its review of permitted development rights (PDRs). The review of PDRs is part of a wider programme of planning reform. The consultation proposes to widen PDR for household level solar, heat pumps and wind turbines, including in some cases on listed buildings and in conservation areas. PDRs for solar and heat pumps on non-domestic buildings and on solar canopies in car parks would also be extended. Consideration is being...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 25th May 2023 The tenanted sector of agriculture is important. Around a third of England’s farmland is let while a larger fraction of land is farmed by those with some let land. As with other lines of business, it is a way to farm without carrying the capital cost of premises in the balance sheet, releasing funds for active business. It is a means of entry and equally important, for flexibility, progression and exit as a...
With increasing awareness and knowledge, and a changing climate, winemaking is a growing sector in England and Wales. Land suitable for vines in England is known to command upward of £25,00 per acre. Following Brexit, DEFRA is to review the regulation of the wine industry, proposing changes to better fit the UK context. A consultation on the new regulations was opened on 24th May, and runs until 21st July. More detail is available here: Smarter Regulation: Wine Reforms Consultation - Defra...
Yesterday’s CAAV Council approved this Report on the Association’s activities in 2022, alongside the financial accounts.
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 18th May 2023 The bells striking for midnight on Monday marked the end of an era for farming in England. For 31 years, May 15th has been a key date in the farming calendar for a succession of area-based payment regimes, since the MacSharry reforms were implemented for 1993. The frantic scramble then to have the required mapping done in time foreshadowed later crises, as applications were prepared and made each year, despite...
New guidance on the management of Oak Processionary Moth in England will come into force from 24th May 2023. This includes changes to the rules for the sale and movement of trees. Full details can be found on the government website: Oak Processionary Moth management policy changes guide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme (SUSSS) 2022 payment rate has been confirmed at £61.25 per animal.
The application window for the Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS), Higher Level, in Northern Ireland closes on 19th May. Farmers that currently hold an active Tranche 2 Higher Agreement which will end on 31 December 2023 are also eligible to reapply to Tranche 7. More detail is available on the DAERA website: Application window for EFS Higher opens | Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (daera-ni.gov.uk)....