The Chancellor delivered her Spring Statement last week and stands defiant against the farming sector calls to abolish the new IHT and BPR threshold which comes into force in 12 months time.

So since Labour came into power is there any light shining through their headline UK agricultural policies? The simple answer is no!   DEFRA are removing environment schemes faster than it takes to prepare and submit an application these days, literally overnight! Environment schemes were sold to farmers and landowners as providing ‘Public Money for Public Goods’ however there is seemingly now little Public Money to support Public Goods in the countryside.

National Infrastructure projects are gathering a pace as the net zero carbon electricity production target date of 2030 is now around the corner with ‘green energy’ developers submitting planning applications at an alarming rate as government targets 43-50 GW of offshore wind, 27-29 GW of onshore wind, and 45-47 GW of solar power under the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan and with National Grid requiring to expand the grid distribution infrastructure three fold to meet connections demand there will be increasing pressures on farmers and landowners of affected land, whilst in the private clean energy developer and battery storage sectors for example there may be opportunities in farm diversification.

The replacement National Planning Policy Framework which was released in December 2024 has been implemented to assist the government’s drive for 1.5 million new homes within their five year term in office which includes potentially the release of weak green belt allocations as ‘grey land’ which in principle seems sensible on suitable edge of village and town locations however the economics of delivering this type of development on grey land appears to be flawed due to a ‘golden rule’ to release grey land a requirement to provide an additional 15% affordable homes above a council’s standard affordable housing policy is necessary.

As such, where a council’s standard affordable housing requirement is 35%, the affordable housing requirement will need to be at 50% which is far less viable

Trade war tariffs and sanctions are starting to send ripples from across ‘the pond’ affecting the steel sector and now the motor industry and so we await to see what potential food trade deals that are likely to be done have on UK agriculture.

The land and property sector remains particularly active despite a winter of discontent and with Spring now upon us momentum continues to grow. SHP VALUERS have recently let a 24 hectare (60 acre) farm in the Preston area for a ten year term following a significant amount of interest, viewings and strong tenders which saw three impressive potential tenants interviewed with very little to choose between them. The letting sector remains buoyant.

SHP VALUERS are jointly instructed to launch the sale of a North Lancashire former dairy farm when it comes to the market late this month. We predict there will be demand from the investment sector, existing livestock and arable farmers seeking to expand, farmers and landowners with capital rollover reinvestment.

It appears that while central government do not appear to be offering anything but doom to the UK farming sector the rural property sector remains resilient to whatever direct or indirect national or international policies impact upon farming businesses.

 

 

Adam Pickervance MRICS ia a director at SHP VALUERS  

Email: adamp@shpvaluers.co.uk