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On 25th March, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) announced that it would be applying a cap to the amount of land farmers can put into certain Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) actions. This affects those actions which take land out of production, in a bid to protect food security.
The cap of 25% of the holding has been applied to the following actions for applications submitted after midnight on 25th March 2024. Your application won’t be affected if you applied before this.
AHL1: Pollen and nectar flower mix
AHL2: Winter bird food on arable and horticultural land
AHL3: Grassy field corners or blocks
IGL1: Take improved grassland field corners or blocks out of management
IGL2: Winter bird food on improved grassland
IPM2: Flower-rich grass margins, blocks, or in-field strips
If you require assistance with an application for SFI or Countryside Stewardship, please contact a member of our Rural team on 01234 352201.
After the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) announced the gradual removal of the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), many farmers have turned to environmental stewardship schemes to supplement their income. Now that we are into the delinked payments period, it was thought that the requirement to declare land uses in your fields each year would have ended. However, recent guidance from DEFRA indicates that you will still be required to declare the land uses (cropping) within your field parcels annually, so that options on stewardship schemes can be cross-checked to ensure compatibility with the cropping system.
Essentially this means that if you are in Environmental or Countryside Stewardship, before you complete the annual claim, you must log in to the Rural Payments Agency online service and update the cropping/land use in each field.
For those of you whom we complete the annual claims on your behalf, we will update the land use codes but will need the cropping information from you as we did when completing the Basic Payment application.
Should you need help with updating your land use codes or part of your stewardship annual claim, please contact a member of our Rural team on 01234 352201.
A Red Book valuation is a formal opinion of value provided by a Chartered Surveyor who is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) prepared in accordance with the RICS Valuation Standards, which are commonly referred to as the Red Book.
The Red Book sets out clear standards that the valuer must follow. It outlines that a valuation is to be undertaken with high standards of investigation, inspection, analysis and justification and can only be carried out by fully qualified RICS Registered Valuers.
When is a Red Book Valuation Needed?
There are many occasions when a Red Book valuation will be required that we can help with. These include:
The high standards required of the Red Book mean that these valuations can be used for legislative requirements and negotiations. The end valuation is a document that is clear, well researched, justified and ultimately useful to the instructing party.
Red Book Valuation or Market Appraisal?
A Red Book valuation differs from a market appraisal, which is an informal opinion/estimate the guide price for a property at sale This is very often carried out by estate agents, with a long-term view of gaining the instruction to market and sell the subject property so may be more focussed on winning the instruction that reporting the correct value.
The Robinson & Hall Team
Robinson & Hall LLP has many RICS qualified Registered Valuers who are able to provide Red Book valuations for a wide range of property types, to include rural, development, commercial and residential.
If you would like to gain more information or obtain a quote, please do not hesitate to contact the team on 01234 352201.
The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) provides a contribution to farm businesses to invest in equipment and technology that will help them develop more sustainable farming, horticultural and forestry systems. The fund has now been in existence for two years, and over 3,000 applications were made in 2022-23. However, those that have already received a grant could still be eligible to apply for further funding.
For 2024 applications, the funding has been split into three separate grants as follows:
As applicants can apply for any of the three grants, each business could receive up to £125,000. Payments received will contribute to 50-60% of the average cost of the item selected (or the actual cost if this is lower).
The FETF focuses on farmers, horticulturalists, forestry owners and contractors. Please note that not all livestock farming systems are eligible and applicants should make their own enquiries before registering with the scheme. Application for the FETF opens shortly, with two further windows to open later in the year.
Productivity Items
There are now 85 different items that can be applied for under the productivity grant. 24 new items are introduced in 2024, based on feedback from surveys conducted by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA). New technologies and equipment are categorised by farming system and include a tractor-powered electric desiccator for weed and plant control, a mobile tractor-powered livestock total feed ration mixer, and a forestry harvesting head with bark stripper.
Popular productivity equipment continues to be a robotic drill and guided hoe, automatic tree planters and a robotic silage pusher.
Slurry Management Items
There are now 17 different items of slurry equipment that can be applied for. Following feedback from the DEFRA surveys, the specification for the equipment has been widened to allow screw press, screen press and mobile separators.
Animal Health and Welfare
There are now 130 animal health and welfare items that can be applied for, including 29 new items.
Applications are scored based on their contribution to the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway priorities. Applicants can boost their application by 20% by proving they have discussed the items applied for with a vet.
Popular health and welfare equipment continue to be handling systems, disinfecting equipment and remote monitoring systems.
Application Details
Applicants should check their eligibility before applying for grants under the scheme. Each item applied for is assigned a score out of 100. When the applicant sends in their grant application, the scores for each item are added together, and divided by the number of items applied for. This average score is then used to rank applications; funds will be granted to the highest scoring applications first and will continue down the list until the quota for that application window is reached. However, do not worry if your application is rejected in one application window, as you are eligible to reapply at later application windows in the year.
Payments from the grant are received in arrears, meaning that you must prove you have the funds to cover the full cost initially. Applicants cannot utilise money from other UK public funds, lease or hire purchase schemes. Applications cannot be made for items which are brought using part exchange, second hand or ex demos, items bought on hire purchase or lease, or items already purchased prior to application. Claiming the grant can only occur once the item has been paid for, delivered, installed and made operational.
If you are interested in applying for the scheme or wish to request more information, please contact a member of our Rural team on 01234 352201 or email bedford@robinsonandhall.co.uk
The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 introduced a cut-off date of 1st January 2026, after which time historic public rights of way cannot be recorded. However, the Government has now extended the deadline for this cut off to 1st January 2031. This affects landowners, as there is generally significant public interest from people who enjoy accessing the countryside and want to ensure that there are no historical public rights of way lost.
Additionally, after the cut-off date, the Definitive Map will not be able to be changed to correct any historical errors. This means that if a route for a public right of way is shown incorrectly, a landowner will be unable to apply to have this corrected. It is therefore important that if a landowner believes routes are recorded incorrectly they act now, especially as local highway authorities tend to have a large backlog of cases.
A new public right of way can be recognised when a route has been used for at least 20 years without interruption. The onus is on the landowner to prove that they have actively tried to prevent third parties from acquiring rights over their property. One way this can be done is by erecting signs and notices which explicitly state that public access is prohibited, but they must be maintained and located close to the land that they are looking to protect. Similarly, locking gates and/or blocking the access to routes which are not public rights of way can help to express that the landowner does not want that section of land dedicated as a public right of way.
If a landowner gives the public permission to use a particular route as a permissive right of way, the public’s ability to claim it as a public right of way is limited. This may be useful if there are particular routes which the landowner is willing to allow the public to use but where they do not want that right to become permanent. It is important to document permissive paths and also erect signs on the land confirming the use of the route is by permission.
Other ways in which a landowner can protect against new public rights of ways being created is through completing a landowner statement under Section 31(6) of the Highways Act 1980. They can also complete a statement under Section 15A of the Commons Act 2006 which works in the same way as a Section 31 deposit but against new applications for village greens. The statement is submitted to the local authority and allows a landowner to legally protect themselves against inadvertently granting any new rights of way on their land. Effectively, the landowner draws a line in the sand to prevent commencement of any new 20 year periods of use.
We can prepare the required documents required under S31 (6) and 15A on your behalf. For more information or to find out how our Rural Property & Business department can help you please contact 01234 352201 or 01280 428010 or email bedford@robinsonandhall.co.uk
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has recently provided an update as to how the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme will be expanded and improved in 2024.
Primarily, there will be an increase of around 10% for payment rates for options under the scheme, in an aim to provide more money for farmers to deliver change and have a positive impact on the environment. There will also be the introduction of “premium payments” for the 21 actions listed as high priority, where options are considered to have the biggest environmental impact.
In line with this, the number of actions available is being increased so that there will be an additional 50 options available from sometime in the summer. This should mean that the scheme is accessible to more farmers, as there will be a wider range of actions available to choose from.
There will be actions introduced for precision farming, where payments are made for farming actions which use technology and reduce the use of pesticides or fertilisers.
Some of the new additional actions available in summer 2024 are detailed below:
| Action Available | Payment Rate | Description |
| Precision Farming – Variable rate application of nutrients | £27 per hectare | Precision farming variable rate technology is used to apply nutrients on arable, horticultural land or improved permanent grassland, to match the nutrient needs of crops for different areas within land parcels |
| Manage species-rich floodplain meadows (5-year option) | £1,070 per hectare | Species-rich floodplain meadows that periodically flood are managed naturally |
| Deer control and management (10-year option) | £105 per hectare | Control native or non-native deer where they are having a negative impact on priority species and habitats such as native woodlands |
| Footpath access (5-year option) | £77 per 100m | Provide and maintain new permissive footpaths to the public |
DEFRA will also be altering the online application process, so that farmers and land managers can use a single service for both their SFI and Countryside Stewardship (CSS) Mid-Tier applications. The aim of this system is to allow the applicant to select from the range of eligible actions available on each land parcel, as well as combining compatible SFI and CSS Mid-Tier actions. This should lead to a more efficient application process, and less duplication of actions between SFI and CSS scheme agreements.
The new actions will be available later this year, although an exact date is yet to be published. Those with an existing SFI agreement can either add these actions at the existing agreement’s annual review date or start a second SFI agreement when the new options become available.
For more information or to find out how our Rural Property & Business department can help you please contact 01234 352201 or 01280 428010 or email bedford@robinsonandhall.co.uk
With land ownership or occupation, it is almost inevitable that at some point a utility company will need to cross your land to lay a new pipe, cable or other apparatus. Receiving notice of impending works from a utility company is always daunting, but as the utility companies generally have statutory powers to enter land, it is something which needs to be tackled head on.
Given the number of utility projects taking place in our region at present, we thought it would be useful to give key points/tips to assist those affected.
1. Early Engagement
We tend to find that engaging with the utility company, their agents or contractors at an early stage improves the outcome for the affected party. Once a scheme has been designed, it is often difficult to agree changes and therefore early engagement allows you to raise concerns during the design stage thus giving the contractors time to build these into the scheme design, where possible. Our advice is that if you do receive a letter of intended works, either engage with the company directly or let us know and we can do so on your behalf as soon as possible after receiving information regarding the proposals for the scheme.
2. Statutory Notices
Where the utility company has statutory powers of entry, there is a requirement for formal notices to be served. We always check these notices to ensure they have been properly served and are legally effective.
3. Keeping Records
The utility company should compensate you for your reasonable time spent on the scheme and reasonable agent’s and solicitor’s fees. From the outset of the scheme, you should therefore keep a diary of any time you spend liaising with the utility company so that we have the evidence to include in the claim for compensation.
4. Record of Condition
Most utility companies will take a record of condition prior to works commencing. If they do, it is important to ask for a copy to ensure it is adequate. Alternatively, or in addition, it is often useful to take your own record of condition. The record of condition can then be used to ensure the land is reinstated to the same condition as prior to the works and compensation can be claimed if it is not.
5. Soil Storage & Management
The utility company should be mindful of the soil type and how to manage it during the works. Where soil is stripped, the topsoil and subsoil should be stored separately to allow proper reinstatement. If additional cultivations are required post-reinstatement, these can be included in the claim for compensation.
6. Access
The utility company should do its best to maintain access to land severed by the scheme during the works and thereafter. If access is restricted, either temporarily or permanently, this can be factored into any claim for compensation.
7. Drainage
Land drainage is often affected by works to lay pipes or cables. Ensuring the drains are properly reinstated after the works is key to minimising yield reductions in future years. If drainage plans are available, providing these to the utility company at an early stage means drainage can be factored into the scheme design rather than as an afterthought. For some schemes we are able to agree comprehensive drainage works but, even for smaller schemes, we always ask that the location of any drains found during the works are GPS mapped and that the farmer has the opportunity to inspect any repairs prior to reinstatement of the soil.
8. Claiming Compensation
The utility company is required to compensate you for any losses incurred as a result of the scheme. This includes the value of any land permanently acquired, devaluation of land, crop loss, your time, professional fees and any other properly incurred losses. When we put together compensation claims, we may be required to provide evidence to accompany the claim to prove the losses. Therefore, the more information you can give us with regard to additional cultivations, loss of crop, issues with drainage, etc, the easier it is to make the claim and the quicker the claim can be settled.
Whilst no one wants utility works on their land, they are an inevitable consequence of land ownership. It is therefore important to make the best of a bad situation and work, as far as possible, with the utility company to minimise the long-term effect on your holding. Robinson & Hall has extensive experience in acting for landowners against utility companies, so if you do receive notice of impending works, please contact one of our rural team for advice.
Globally and nationally, we are in testing times. Interest rates, inflation and energy prices remain stubbornly high and certainly at levels which have not been seen for several decades. Labour costs also remain high, with shortages in most sectors. International tensions in Ukraine and now in Israel/Palestine provide further threats to our domestic security.
As a result, many sectors are struggling, including manufacturing, transport and leisure. House prices are falling, the value of investment properties is falling and the international property markets in many parts of the globe are suffering quite badly.
In domestic agriculture, we still have relatively high fuel and fertiliser prices together with a shortage of experienced farm labour and an extreme shortage of seasonal labour. Commodity prices generally are lower than a year ago and profits are feeling the pinch.
Nevertheless, despite all this gloom, farmland values continue to go from strength to strength. There is virtually no decent arable land selling for less than £10,000 per acre, and to see prices rise to £12,000, £14,000 and even £16,000 per acre where there is local demand is far from uncommon.
Significant blocks of grassland in the central and eastern counties might not be so keenly pursued, but complete farms of 500 acres or more have been in short supply. There remains considerable cash within the farming community from rollover funds, with farmers looking to relocate to their dream holding. Regrettably, the choice of such holdings has been limited and selling agents have had little difficulty in securing sales.
There continues to be significant funds available from outside the farming community as well. In difficult times, land is seen as a safe bet. With stock markets difficult to predict and with other property investments in decline, considerable money has been coming into the farmland market.
The number of unsatisfied buyers from the 2023 season is substantial and this can only mean increased demand in 2024. Without a significant increase in supply, which seems unlikely, I would predict that prices will either maintain their current levels or increase yet again in 2024. Generally speaking, farmers are not under pressure from their banks and I see no reason why there should be significantly more farms on the market next year.
Finally, I would highlight a phenomenon at the lower end of the market. Paddocks, small pieces of woodland, off-lying rundown buildings, old railway embankments and the like may hold no real value to a farmer. However, on the open market, these seemingly useless items can secure extraordinary prices if marketed correctly. We tend to put these properties through our regular property auction. The competitive environment of the sale room brings the best out in bidders, and the results can be extraordinary. Farming clients have been able to sell an asset which has no value to them but which enables them to pay off the overdraft, pay the school fees, erect a new grain store or upgrade the combine.
To conclude, agricultural land is often compared to gold. It provides a safe investment in difficult times. Where the demand is rising and the supply remains static, we can only see a strong market through 2024.
For more information or to discuss the opportunities available to you, please contact David.
As we continue to see annual reductions to the Basic Payment Scheme monies received from Government, farmers and land managers can take advantage of applying for schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) in order to help to bridge this financial gap.
The SFI scheme is now open for 2023 applications, with the actions included in the scheme focussed towards providing flexibility to farmers and land managers, and offering options which have something suitable for every type of farm. Additionally, the scheme is not competitive and therefore anyone who applies (subject to being eligible) is guaranteed to be offered an agreement.
There are 23 actions offered as part of the 2023 SFI scheme, relating to soil health, hedgerows, pest and nutrient management, moorland, buffer strips, grassland and arable land, with higher payments being made for the more complex actions. It is likely that most farmers and land managers will already be undertaking some of these actions in the existing day-to-day management of their holding, and therefore it would be prudent for them to apply for the SFI, in order to receive a financial benefit for this.
The payment rates for the actions under SFI have been aligned to be similar to Countryside Stewardship options, so that you do not lose out financially, regardless of which scheme you choose to enter. There is also a management payment for entering into the SFI scheme, with £20 per hectare being paid for up to the first 50 hectares of land entered into an agreement. This is to help to account for the administration costs that may be incurred for managing an SFI agreement.
The SFI agreements run for 3 years, with farmers and land managers able to upgrade their agreement annually, either by including more land or adding more actions. An annual declaration must be submitted to the Rural Payments Agency confirming that all actions have been complied with.
With further actions being rolled out in 2024, this year is a good opportunity for farmers and land managers to enter into the SFI to gain an understanding of how the scheme works for them, as well as providing a guaranteed income for their business, with the option to upgrade or expand their agreement further next year. Payments under the SFI are made quarterly, which provides a regular cash flow for farmers and land managers.
For more information or if you require help in preparing and submitting your application, please call Katie Cross.
The latest version of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI 2023) opened for applications from Monday 18th September 2023.
Since the end of August, farmers have been asked to ‘express their interest’ in entering the scheme. Those who did so will be contacted by the Rural Payments Agency and invited to make a full application. This is to be a stepped and controlled invitation process, with farmers not invited into the scheme all at once. Currently, an application can only be made once this initial invitation has been made.
Farmers who are interested in applying are to ensure that all required information is correct, to include online maps and land use / cover details. This will allow the online system to outline which SFI 2023 options can be chosen at the time of applying.
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has also confirmed that farmers who have a live SFI 2023 agreement in place by the end of the year will receive an accelerated payment, being 25% the value of their agreement, in the first month of their agreement. This is to help with cashflow, in recognition of the reductions in other funding and the delay in the implementation of this scheme. Please note, standard payments for this scheme are due to be paid quarterly.
For more information or to discuss any of the above, please contact a member of our Rural Team.
