240423: Northern Ireland - 8th tranche of Environmental Farming Scheme open
The eighth tranche of DAERA’s Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS), Higher Level, is open for applications from 1st May until 17th May 2024.
The eighth tranche of DAERA’s Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS), Higher Level, is open for applications from 1st May until 17th May 2024.
Farmers are being reminded by DAERA that any Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) Entitlement Transfers for this year must be completed by midnight Thursday 2nd May 2024.
DEFRA has warned that the seasonal low vector period has ended. The biting midge which carries the virus has become more active with the warmer Spring weather and there is an increased chance of infected midges being blown over from the Continent. While there is currently no evidence that the bluetongue virus is circulating, DEFRA is planning for an increase in cases. Farms close to the coast in counties along the east coast of England from Norfolk to Kent and along the south coast from Kent to...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 18th April 2024 We are almost always in the middle of a story. The past is not over but rather a prologue. The future is yet to come, evolving from now but with surprises. There is rarely a conclusion, though sometimes hindsight suggests a move to the next Act. The present is simply a waystation, not an answer. More than for some time, we are living amid accelerated change and disruption, perhaps familiar with what we have...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 12th April 2024 The Agricultural Landlord and Tenant Code of Practice for England was published on Monday. It is a voluntary Code for all parties to tenancies (that is, landlords and tenants) and their advisers, giving guidance as to approach, conduct and behaviour. It looks to support good relationships and help where difficulties arise. Intended to improve practice, it does not change the law or alter any contract and...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 4th April 2024 Keir Starmer’s Labour Party (like the Conservatives in Canada) clearly feels it is working a rich electoral vein in positioning itself as the advocate for more housing, while other parties carve up the opponents between them. Following his references in the autumn to “bulldozing” the planning system for England, the document issued for the launch of its local election campaign suggest that...
The Scottish Government has advised that with effect from Monday 1st April councils have the power to charge up to double the full rate of Council Tax on second homes. It goes on to state that 29 of the 32 Scottish local authorities have confirmed their intention to use the power. A second home is classed as any home that is not used as someone’s primary residence but that is occupied for at least 25 days in a year....
From 2nd April small sites are required to demonstrate biodiversity net gain as a condition of planning consent (unless exempt). Small sites are defined as: residential development where the number of dwellings is between 1 and 9 on a site of an area 1 hectare or less, or if the number of dwellings is unknown, the site area is less than 0.5 hectarescommercial development where floor space created is less than 1,000 square metres or total site area is less than 1 hectaredevelopment that is not...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 28th March 2024 Today’s developing agricultural policies have a twin-track character, embracing both farming and nature, albeit in different ways across the UK. As they develop, so the interactions become more complex. There are clear synergies with farming’s dependence on nature but, even with the well-advanced evolution of England’s new schemes, the tensions here saw this week’s swift decision limiting the use of...
DEFRA has announced today (25th March) that there will be a cap of 25% of a holding able to be entered into 6 actions under the Sustainable Farming Incentive that take land out of direct food production. The actions are: IPM2: Flower-rich grass margins, blocks, or in-field stripsAHL1: Pollen and nectar flower mixAHL2: Winter bird food on arable and horticultural landAHL3: Grassy field corners or blocksIGL1: Take improved grassland field corners or blocks out of managementIGL2: Winter bird food...
The new Welsh First Minister. Vaughan Gething, has moved Lesley Griffiths to Culture, replacing her with Huw Irranca Griffiths in a new post for Climate Change and Rural Affairs. When an MP he had been a junior minister at DEFRA.
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 21st March 2024 Scotland’s latest Land Reform Bill has now been published. Most of it concerns a series of agricultural tenancy changes and a revised and consolidated Small Landholders regime for perhaps less than 70 tenancies. However, its opening sections 1 to 6 would create a framework to regulate the management of over 400 of the largest rural ownerships and to control the disposal of land by many more with potential...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 14th March 2024 Pressures on clients’ choices as to the use of property continue to develop with new factors to be taken into account for advice. The Budget’s tax hit on holiday lets may see an appraisal of how cottages are used. Answers may range from keeping them, if integral to the holding in a tourist area and hoping to benefit from others going out, to switching to longer lettings or sale at the reduced rate for...
The window for revenue claims for Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship agreements opened on 14 March. Claims should be submitted by 15 May. The Land Use codes for the parcels in the agreement should be updated to ensure that they are current. More detail is available here....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 7th March 2024 Agricultural Property Relief (APR) from Inheritance Tax has again proved a very robust relief. In yesterday’s Budget with the financial constraints of poor growth, the Treasury issued the Government’s answers to last year’s major consultation: it will work with interested parties to understand what environmental transactions and assets really involve and develop a shared analysis of the issues and so how...
The Government has announced that Round 2 of the Local Nutrient Management Fund is now open for Expressions of Interest. The Fund is designed to provide grant funding, of up to £10 million, to local authorities on behalf of affected nutrient neutrality catchments.
A summary of the Competitions and Market Authority (CMA) market study final report into housebuilding. The study considers a range of matters including planning policy, supply of housing, quality and innovation and the private management of amenities on housing estates providing an overview of their issues as well as CMA recommendations on these.
Following last year’s consultation, the Government has just announced that: “After careful consideration of the responses, the Government’s response outlines it has decided to: establish a joint HM Treasury and HMRC working group with industry representatives to identify solutions that provide clarity on the taxation of ecosystem service markets where existing law or guidance may not provide sufficient clarity extend the existing scope of agricultural property relief from 6...
The Chancellor has announced a cut in the higher CGT rate on gains made on these disposals from 28 per cent to 24 per cent.
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 29th February 2024 Perhaps, as in T.S. Eliot’s words, “Humankind cannot bear very much reality” (Four Quartets). Much of our public discussion seems based on making gestures, that the wish is better than the deed, the protest more material than the answer, rather than facing the realities of our problems and tackling them, explaining the issues and applying the practical remedies. One of the greatest challenges of...
Members are reminded that the window for transferring delinked payment reference data opens on 15th February and closes on 10th May. For more detail, see our website note of May 2023....
The RPA has published an online SFI Action Checker: Check what SFI actions you can get paid to do on your land (defra.gov.uk). This tool can be used to assess which SFI Actions are compatible with the land types on a holding, and directs users to the relevant guidance. It does not assess eligibility for the SFI scheme, but rather is intended as an entry-level tool for those scoping out which actions may be suitable for them....
It has been brought to our attention that some members have been receiving scam emails purporting to be from the CAAV and stating that their membership is overdue. If you receive one of these scam emails please delete it. Any genuine emails regarding membership would come from dorota@caav.org.uk or abby@caav.org.uk.
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 22nd February 2024 The Government went in strength to this week’s NFU AGM: the first Prime Minister’s visit for 16 years as well as the new Secretary of State, Steve Barclay, and Farming Minister Mark Spencer. Always an occasion for announcements, more were made than usual, fleshing out policy development and schemes. Following Steve Barclay’s speech to the Oxford Farming Conference, the theme for England is now...
Jeremy Moody, CAAV Secretary and Adviser, spoke to the CAAV-hosted meeting at this January’s Oxford Farming Conference with the theme of UK Farming Land Tenure at a Crossroads. The need for improved farming productivity together with the focus on environmental and net zero issues is putting great pressure of rural land, its use and occupation. Agricultural tenancies, business arrangements and, indeed, land ownership are all under stress. Jeremy reviewed some of both the new challenges to be...
With effect from 16th February 2024, the Welsh Government has lifted restrictions on gatherings of galliforme birds (such as pheasants, chickens and turkeys). A general licence for captive birds or poultry, as the case may be, is required. Restrictions on gatherings of anseriforme birds (such as ducks, geese and swans) remain in place....
Following the Prime Minister’s speech today at the NFU AGM, DEFRA has published these two overviews of its schemes: the range of financial assistance schemes – see this link the Farming Investment Fund for productivity The Prime Minister's announcements are summarised in our note....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 15th February 2024 DEFRA’s Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is the element of England’s new regime that sits best with commercial farming. There are some non-production options but, generally, the actions offered can readily fit with or alongside commercial farming. Actions available or becoming available include improving soils, helping the adoption of precision farming and multi-species pastures with their benefits...
The Forestry Commission are running a free event on 22nd March 2024 to provide an introduction to woodland creation opportunities, funding and support. The event will take place at the Holiday Inn, Scotch Corner, DL10 6NR. More detail and booking is available here: Woods Mean Business: tree and woodland event for land and forestry agents Tickets, Fri 22 Mar 2024 at 09:30 | Eventbrite....
The Welsh Government has published a written statement on Riparian Ownership: Maintaining Watercourses, highlighting guidance document produced by NRW which explains to landowners how riparian ownership works, and how it might affect them.
From today (12 February), all new major housing developments in England are required to deliver at least a 10% Biodiversity Net Gain. A collection of related CAAV resources and external guidance is available on our website here: BNG - CAAV Collected Guidance - Version 1 - The Central Association for Agricultural Valuers.
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 8th February 2024 It started in Holland but has now spread to most EU countries in the mainland of Europe, from Spain to Poland as farmers bring their tractors to town make their points. Each country’s protests though follow its national agenda, perhaps only unified by the EU’s pernickety farm-level auditing of the CAP and the growing force of the EU Green Deal. With a wider background of western malaise and ahead of...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 1st February 2024 Many very large things are being asked of us and our land. We are being asked to answer climate change and adapt to increasingly volatile weather, reducing emissions, sequestering carbon and managing water, improving nature and eco-systems, providing housing and other development including infrastructure – and still provide food. All that is to come from the finite area of our islands at a time of growing...
The Bank of England has held its base rate at 5.25% with the Governor noting that geopolitical risks had intensified. Six members of the Monetary Policy Committee voted for a standstill, two for an increase and one for a cut.
On their blog, the RPA has reminded BPS claimants of the new deadlines for payment queries and appeals. The 60 day deadline starts on the ‘date of notification’. This is the date the RPA emails or writes to a claimant, giving notification of a payment decision. This can be:a payment remittancea payment querya response to a payment query, when the original payment query was received by the RPA within 60 days of sending a payment remittanceFor any BPS payment decisions notified before 1...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 25th January 2024 It can be worth remembering in today’s rapidly changing circumstances and new environmental offers that, where law or taxation make special provisions for farming, their benefit can be limited to where farming is being done. They are not entitlements, but conditional. Where agricultural activity ceases, the benefit of those special provisions can be lost. The provisions are to assist those who are farmers,...
Applications have now opened for the 2nd round of the Improving Farm Productivity Grant. For more detail on the grant, see our website note of 14th December. Since the initial publication of the scheme guidance, DEFRA has increased the proportion of the costs that the grant will cover from 40% to 50% for robotic and automated equipment....
Two major energy projects have reached milestones in their consenting. Sizewell C has announced that it has satisfied the commitments made in its Deed of Obligation. These were preliminary tasks required under the Development Consent Order (DCO) and preconditions for the start of the formal construction phase. The start of construction is not conditional on the final investment decision (FID) which is expected to be taken later in 2024. The Drax Bioenergy carbon capture and storage project was...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 18th January 2024 The encouragement of private capital with and alongside public money has been a recurrent theme in government statements on environmental policy. DEFRA has set out very round figures as targets for this, calling for £500 million of private investment in “nature recovery” by 2027 and £1 billion by 2030 (perhaps 40 per cent of England’s legacy CAP money but not all necessarily agricultural or even...
DEFRA has confirmed the start dates for biodiversity net gain in England:From 12 February 2024, BNG will be mandatory for new planning applications for major development made under the Town and Country Planning Act (TCPA) 1990, subject to the confirmed exemptions.BNG for small sites will have an extended transition period and will apply from 2 April 2024....
Following the start-of-the-year announcement by the DEFRA Secretary on schemes and coming farming policy, DEFRA is hosting several webinars to brief advisers and farmers. The Farming and Countryside Programme (FCP) will be holding an adviser specific webinar on Monday 22nd January: Advisor Webinar - the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI24) Tickets, Mon 22 Jan 2024 at 15:00 | Eventbrite. DEFRA are hosting a webinar on 26th January. Janet Hughes and others from the RPA will be providing an...
Round 2 of the Slurry Infrastructure grant will close for applications on Wednesday 17th January. In addition to the scheme guidance, DEFRA has posted a blog item providing a recap of the grant and the information needed to get started.
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 11th January 2024 Recent weeks have seen a mood that interest rates may be on the way down. However, UK 10 year gilts are nudging back up to 4 per cent and there seems reason for rates to remain higher for longer and also be more volatile. The strange period was the 15 years of unprecedented ultra-low interest rates from 2008 to 2023, not the last few months in which we have returned to a world of significant interest rates....
DAERA has announced that the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) is providing free, face-to-face Soil Nutrient Health Scheme (SNHS) training sessions for farmers in the County Down area.
Scottish Government has made an announcement on the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme (SSBSS) 2024, the application window is now open, and will close on Tuesday 31st December 2024.
Defra has reviewed and updated Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) payment rates based on current costs. Where the 2024 rate has increased, the higher payment rate will be paid for: existing SFI Pilot and 2023 agreements, backdated to the start of their current agreement year.new applications received in 2024 SFI 22 payment rates are not changing as the scheme is closing....
The Scottish Government has launched a consultation with a view to updating the legislation on the management of wild deer. The consultation follows the report of the Deer Working Group in 2020. The proposed legislative changes seek to improve deer management taking into consideration climate change and biodiversity. Changes to legislation that were made in 2023 include to remove the close season for all male deer, to enable the wider use of non-toxic ammunition and to facilitate night...
Robbie Moore, Floods Minister, has made a statement in the Commons on the renewed flooding in England following Storm Henk, noting that: “Parts of the country had a month’s worth of rain in the first four days of January, and that rain fell on already saturated ground. Several of our biggest river systems—the Trent, Thames, Severn and Avon—saw record levels, or close to record levels …” He stressed the protection given by recent flood defence works and the 2022 planning guidance...
As a striking achievement, the United Kingdom is now about halfway to its net zero target for 2050, the first G7 country to do so. With the lags in producing statistics, the headline territorial measure for UK-produced greenhouse gas emissions in 2022 has now been reported at 51 per cent of their level in 1990, lower than before the pandemic and expected to have fallen further in 2023. With much of this achieved by increased renewable energy reducing the share of fossil fuel in electricity...
Andrew Liddiment of near Leominster, Herefordshire referred himself to the CAAV’s disciplinary processes following a criminal conviction for sexual assault. The CAAV Executive, sitting as a Disciplinary Panel, reviewed all papers submitted and, as authorised for such a case under the Bylaws, determined that the seriousness of the matter for the reputation of a Fellow and of the Association warranted his expulsion from membership of the Association with immediate effect from 19th...
The end of year closure of the SFI Application Portal meant that all applications that had been started but not submitted by then are treated as withdrawn. The Application Portal has now re-opened. We understand that a number of applications have already been started using re-opened Portal and a small number of applications have now been submitted. This is seen to suggest that the system is again functional.
The CAAV office will close for Christmas at 1 p.m. on Friday 22nd December 2023 and re-open on Tuesday 2nd January 2024. 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 21st December 2023 With the winter solstice in the dark of early tomorrow morning, the year turns to bring 2023 to an end and open 2024 and all it might offer. The great feasts of lights, Jewish Hannukah followed by Christmas, shine out in the mid-winter, lights against the dark. From this autumn’s grey and rain sodden farmland of Britain to the grim war-fronts of south and east Ukraine, this matters for the hope and...
As Members will be aware, BPS ends on 31st December 2023, succeeded by delinked payments managing the run-off funds of the scheme. For more background to the scheme, see our recent Podcast). Over the past month, farm businesses have received an Information Statement, setting out the basis on which their delinked payments would be calculated. A business’ reference data – the gross payment received across 2020, 2021 and 2022 – will be able to be transferred to another party in early 2024....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 14th December 2023 Forget England’s Agricultural Transition and the coming end of Basic Payment in the other parts of the United Kingdom. While those dominate conversation and thinking, the most striking policy change for much rural land across the UK goes far beyond where the environmental parts of the new policies might seem to go. The international “30by30” commitment means that 30 per cent of land and 30 per cent of...
The RPA has published guidance on the second round of the Improving Farm Productivity grant. Budgets of £15 million for each have been allocated for solar equipment and for automation and robotics. Grants of between £15,000 and £100,000 will be available for farmers to fund a range of solar equipment, at an intervention rate of 25%. The grant will therefore be able to fund solar projects which have a total cost of between £60,000 and £400,000. For robotic and automated equipment, grants of...
The Forestry Commission has updated the grant manual for the England Woodland Creation Offer, providing more detail for when applicants can move land from Countryside Stewardship into the EWCO scheme. See section 3.3.2 here: England Woodland Creation Offer application form - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
At the end of December, the RPA will be closing the SFI application portal, to allow for annual updates to be undertaken. Any unsubmitted SFI applications will need to be restarted when the system re-opens in January. The key points are: SFI 2023 applications should be submitted by 31 December In order for applicants to apply in 2024, RPA will close the service for new applications for a few days, between 27 December and 1 January Customers with an SFI application they have started but...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 7th December 2023 The area-based Basic Payment Scheme ends this month for England. The RPA has just made the overwhelming majority of the second balancing payments for 2023, so that English farmers have now had almost two thirds of the direct payments possible under the Agricultural Transition. The statutory instrument revoking the Scheme and ending cross compliance has been published together with another one setting 60 day...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 30th November 2023 While having more Fellows and Probationers than ever, the CAAV is conscious that rural practices feel an acute shortage of staff for the growing range and volume of work coming in. With work growing faster than we are, this feels more than the general shortage of staff in the wider economy. The CAAV has been tackling this with a round of meetings with some employers and the universities to see how we can...