DEFRA has announced that, following feedback during the early rounds, the Farming in a Protected Landscape Programme will now have rolling application window. This will allow applications to be submitted up until the programme closes in 2024. For more on the aims of the programme, and the funding available, see our website note of 25th June 2021....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 13th January 2022. A court has awarded a rent of £3,500 for a rural mast on the renewal of a Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 lease. This recognised the widespread use by operators of “Early Completion Incentive Payments” (ECIPs) as tantamount to premiums – the court required their disclosure. As a renewal of a lease protected by the 1954 Act to be a Code agreement, the case (Pippingford (EE Limited v Morriss [2022] EW...
DEFRA has announced an extension to the second round of the Future Farming Resilience Fund, which supports independent advisors in providing free business advice to farmers to help them prepare and adapt during the agricultural transition. The second round of the fund, which opened last year, was due to end in March 2022. However, it is to be extended until September 2022, when the next round of funding will become available. To access advice, farmers should contact the list of independent...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 6th January 2022 The growing competition for land use is a key theme at this week’s Oxford Farming Conference, starting with the CAAV’s presentation on Farming and Land Use: Having Control. Forestry, looking to the low carbon supply chain as a lucrative market more than offsetting, is buoyant and competing for a wider range of lower value farmland, notably in Scotland and Wales. Renewable energy sees larger areas as solar...
On Wednesday, 5th January 2022, the CAAV delivered the first of the on-line fringe events on the opening day of the Oxford Farming Conference. The CAAV’s 45 minute session had Jeremy Moody discussing: Farming and Land Use: Having Control We face changing economics, policies, markets, technologies and climate and new demands on land use from nature and carbon. Now outside the CAP, these might prompt much change in who is farming what land in which ways. Those decisions are personal –...
CAAV AT ON-LINE OXFORD FARMING CONFERENCE 2022 With the Oxford Farming Conference now going remote in response to the pandemic, the CAAV is to deliver the first of the on-line fringe events on the opening Wednesday 5th January. The CAAV’s 45 minute session at 8 a.m. has Jeremy Moody discussing: Farming and Land Use: Having Control We face changing economics, policies, markets, technologies and climate and new demands on land use from nature and carbon. Now outside the CAP, these might...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 22nd December 2021 2021 has been a step in major processes of change with both post-Brexit policies and the pandemic. All parts of the UK have re-written inherited EU law. DEFRA’s replacement of Basic Payment with environmental management and productivity measures is now firmly underway. The Environment Act now frames the Agriculture Act, making environmental improvement a key government policy, alongside climate change...
The CAAV office will close for Christmas at 1 p.m. on Wednesday 22nd December 2021 and re-open on Tuesday 4th January 2022. May we take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 16th December 2021 The housing market is a market for people. A house sale or purchase is the largest transaction many make while a house may be home, with a sense of place as well as a potential financial assurance. A home-owning democracy was a mainstay of 20th century politics but tight supply and loose money have made housing unaffordable for many. The functioning of this market is a key political issue – often also a...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 9th December 2021. DEFRA has made the third of its Agricultural Transition Plan statements, this time largely on SFI 2022 focussed on soils but also with a larger policy speech. This follows the Plan of November 2020 and June’s announcements on SFI and DEFRA’s payment principles. This is and should be seen as a pattern of the progressive development, implementation and testing of new policies, with a flexibility...
The Scottish Government have published a reminder that applications for the Sustainable Agriculture Capital Grants Scheme (SACGS), along with the relevant supporting documentation, should be submitted by 31st December. Completed claims and supporting documents should be emailed to local Area Offices. Applications already submitted will need to have the relevant documentation by that date as well. More information can be found online....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 3rd December 2021. With strong commodity prices (and their input costs), one established trend has been the growing strength of commercial forestry with harvested timber’s uses from construction to biomass now having more value as part of reducing carbon emissions in the wider economy. Economics and policies make this a different market from farm woodlands or from using standing trees to sequester carbon or offset...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 25th November 2021. It is striking that, while waiting for the mystery of England’s new housing policies to be revealed by Michael Gove, the last eight days have seen Wales and Scotland developing housing packages that interlock local taxation with planning control and licences: the close of the Welsh consultation on Council Tax and potential premiums for second homes and the qualification for business rates on holiday...
The Ministry of Justice has opened a consultation on changes to the Housing Legal Aid programme. The main proposals are: remodel the delivery to become a new Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS), incorporating both the existing service of advice and representation at court but also early legal advice before courtexpanding the scope of legal aid so that HLPAS providers can offer early legal advice on social welfare law matters to individuals facing procession proceedingscontracts for...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 18th November 2021. The national, rural and agricultural economies need more good businesses to face the expected challenges of this decade. For all the developing policies and larger national objectives, the economy and so living standards and public services rest on improving business performance. That means providing what people will pay well for, doing so efficiently with the greatest ratio between outputs and inputs...
The Farming Investment Fund was launched on 16th November and, within that, the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) is now open for applications until 7th January 2022. Details are covered in this CAAV webnote The full and expanded list of items eligible for FETF with their specification and the grant payable on each is set out in this note on the Gov.uk website....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 11th November 2021 The theme of nature recovery has gathered political force over the last decade, since the Lawton Report, Making Space for Nature, and DEFRA’s 2011 Natural Environment White Paper. From David Cameron’s concern, the 25 Year Environment Plan published under Theresa May’s premiership to the new Environment Act, the theme, summarised by George Eustice in July 2020 is that: “This Government’s pledge is...
CAAV POWER CUT – THURSDAY 11TH NOVEMBER CAAV e-mails and other services are likely to be disrupted for most of Thursday 11th November as Western Power Distribution has warned that, with local high voltage works in hand, it is cutting off power to the area from 8.30am until later afternoon, though these times are taken as approximate. Arrangements have been made to divert the telephone lines and to handle examinations traffic. Normal service should then be resumed. Alternatively, please call...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 4th November 2021. Animal welfare concerns now have an increased prominence, breadth and reach in Government policies, with a political force that should not be underrated. The Government has two animal welfare Bills in Parliament: the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill and the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill – each with potentially significant consequences. The 2017 election crystallised the new moment. The Conservative...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 29th October 2021. While the Government wrestles on a day-to-day basis with many areas of policy, it shows a sustained strategic direction for environmental and, within that, agricultural policy. While buffeted by events, the realities of government and practical issues of implementation, the approach, pre-dating Boris Johnson’s premiership, can be summarised as: the goal of environmental improvement, embracing climate...