News

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 21st January 2021. Ten months into the pandemic, Wizz Air, the central European budget airline with an 80 per cent fall in passenger numbers, has issued a three year corporate bond paying just over 1 per cent. Ultra-low interest rates have prevailed unprecedentedly since the 2008 financial crisis. UK and US bonds remain at low rates, much EU member states’ government debt is at negative interest rates and, yesterday, 10...

SEPA - the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency - was subject to a cyber attack on Christmas Eve. Data was stolen and some is believed to have been published online. Further details are available on the SEPA website.

The Government has announced that new laws will offer additional protection to historic statues and monuments in England, by requiring listed building consent or full planning permission to be obtained before a statue or monument can be removed. Further information is available on the GOV.UK website.

Three years after the new Electronic Communications Code came into force, we are starting to see some clarity emerge on how the renewal of agreements for rural telecoms sites should be dealt with. In our latest podcast, Kate Russell of the CAAV discusses the Upper Tribunal decision in ON Tower v Green and how it can help those dealing with renewals to reach agreement.

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 14th January 2021. Meetings this week have shown both the Government’s sense of urgency to drive change for English agriculture and the conflicts in doing that. While England’s Agricultural Transition Plan runs to 2027, its real detail is for the period that the Government sees it has until the next election: what it has not done by then might then not be done. The present funding is only assured to 2024. With the...

The First Tier Tribunal, Residential Property Tribunal is seeking to recruit new fee paid valuer members who will adjudicate on residential property disputes in a number of locations across England. Full details are available on the Judicial Appointments Service website.

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 17th December 2020. A local pub has expressed the bizarreness of 2020 as this nightmare examination question:“If you are going down a river at 2mph and a wheel falls off your canoe, how much pancake mix do you need to re-shingle your shed?”In a year of “learning by doing”, the CAAV’s themes in answering are challenge, resilience and adaption. Change is accelerated as society and the economy have been challenged in...

The Upper Tribunal has set out three stages to take when settling telecoms mast rental agreements, in a decision which could shift the backlog of disputes.

Today, Friday 4th December, the Environment, Food and Rural Affrairs (EFRA) Select Committee launches its inquiry into Environmental Land Management and the agricultural transition. The inquiry follows the Ministers' introduction of the Governments plans for an agricultural transition in England. The EFRA Committee will scrutinise the design of the new Environmental Land Management Scheme pilot, ahead of its launch in late 2021. More detail on the inquiry can be found at -...

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 3rd December 2020. The drumbeat of change for agriculture and land management is now fast and loud. The message of prospective change is becoming real economic and practical change for farmers and their advisers, moving in a short period of days from speculation to a part of work. Policy making and scrutiny are now in the UK. While the negotiations with the EU remain unresolved and the Northern Ireland Protocol a mess, the EU...

A review of HS2’s land and property acquisition has missed some fundamental points, according to the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV). The review, initiated by the Department for Transport in the summer, tried to address a wide range of concerns raised by several different parties involved with HS2, explains Kate Russell, policy adviser to the CAAV. “Perhaps inevitably, the result is a piecemeal series of recommendations. While some are very welcome – like better...

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 19th November 2020. Only 10 years ago renewable energy exploded on the market as something that could be done on farms and estates, going beyond a few wind turbines to the rapid expansion of solar and, to a less obvious extent, AD and hydro, as part of the farm business or, often larger schemes, leased out. As this activity spread swiftly from an initial focus in Cornwall, members applied the core skills...