No. 225 Tenancies, Conacre and Licences: Arrangements for Occupying Agricultural Land in Northern Ireland

No. 225 Tenancies, Conacre and Licences: Arrangements for Occupying Agricultural Land in Northern Ireland

ISBN 978 1 901 434 80 4

Price: £75

Foreword

The arrangements for land occupation that best support and improve the productivity and sustainable management of Northern Ireland’s key resource of agricultural land have become an increasingly important issue, particularly identified by the Agri-Food Strategy Board, among many others.

NIRVA was founded three years ago as the professional body for agricultural valuers in the province and, having grown steadily in both scale and activity, has now successfully affiliated to the UK-wide Central Association of Agricultural Valuers which has been dealing with such matters for over a century.

Working together, our two organisations are pleased to respond to the Minister’s challenge above with this publication, reviewing the professional and practical issues for land occupation in Northern Ireland and paving the way forward for a re-birth of the tenanted sector on a sound basis, giving farmers more confidence to invest. It not only outlines the various ways in which farmers can agree for farming land but also how other important factors bear on these decisions, most notably the CAP and taxation. The commentary on taxation issues in Section D may particularly help bring clear light to matters on which there can be much confusion, inhibiting positive decisions about land occupation to the benefit of the rural economy.

Circumstances mean that Norther Ireland can achieve this without specific statute law, giving it a flexibility in the current times of change and challenge. With freely agreed contracts, good custom and practice can develop with experience and professional advice that members of NIRVA and the CAAV can, with others, provide to farmers, landowners and others.