Chancellor Jeremy Hunt unveiled his headline fiscal measures for the months and years ahead. In this issue of Landscope we set out the announcements which have the most relevance to farms and estates.

Improving residential energy efficiency is a challenge for the government and landlords, but could the market help provide a solution? A scheme is currently being piloted that would generate carbon credits for refit projects, which can then be sold to fund improvements in other properties.

FOOD & FARMING

England: Tenant Farming Commissioner role explored
The government committed to take action in response to many of the recommendations of the Rock Review. It has already created a Farm Tenancy Forum to improve its engagement with the sector and feed into the design and delivery of policy and schemes. A working group under the forum is currently developing a code of practice on expected standards of socially responsible behaviour for all parties involved in agricultural tenancy agreements, this includes landlords, tenants and rural professionals.

Defra has now launched a targeted call for evidence as a follow-up to the Rock Review's recommendation to establish a Tenant Farming Commissioner in England. The call for evidence is asking for evidence of poor practice in relationships between landlords and tenants, awareness of existing forms of redress such as the complaints services available through the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and what powers a Tenant Farming Commissioner should have if the role was created. The questions also explore how to encourage more collaborative tenant-landlord and advisor relationships. Only selected sector experts, trade organisations and professional bodies have been invited to submit evidence directly. Once the call for evidence closes on 8 February 2024, the government will review the submissions and decide whether the commissioner role is required.

Leisurely approach to unhealthy eating
The chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee, Sir Robert Goodwill MP, says the government is taking a leisurely approach to tackling unhealthy eating habits. He added that current government measures do not adequately track food security, at either the household or the national level. Sir Goodwill’s comments came as EFRA published the government’s response to its report on food security. EFRA’s initial report highlighted that the UK has an obesity crisis with around 40% of the adult population expected to be obese by 2035. It also noted that people with low incomes are more likely to be obese because food high in fat, sugar and salt is often considerably cheaper per calorie than healthy food. Referring to the third delay of the government’s ban on volume price promotions until October 2025, the EFRA committee said it doubts that the delay will save consumers money and asserted that it will certainly make it harder to reduce unhealthy eating and obesity.

The government says it does not believe it is the right time to introduce new taxes that will push up the cost of food, referencing calls for a full impact assessment for the introduction of a sugar and salt reformulation tax. Similarly, the government says it has delayed the ban on volume promotions because it believes it could increase the cost of living, but it does acknowledge volume price promotions encourage the over-purchasing of less healthy products. The government added that creating healthy lives is not just a matter for the government. It also means empowering and enabling people to manage their own health and engage in healthy behaviours.

Wales: TB trends downwards
New incidents of bovine TB in Wales in the 12 months to June this year were 18% lower when compared to the same period five years ago. The number of animals slaughtered for TB control has also decreased by almost 5%. A targeted approach is being taken in hot-spot areas such as Pembrokeshire and Anglesey. The Pembrokeshire TB project is actively engaging with 15 farms selected by six local veterinary practices and is piloting novel approaches including heightened biosecurity and ways of managing high-risk animals.

POLICY

Autumn Statement
A higher tax take, leading to lower-than-expected levels of government debt provided chancellor Jeremy Hunt with some headroom for tax cuts in his Autumn Statement. He focused on taxes which favour business growth and wouldn’t exacerbate inflation, so employee National Insurance contributions were cut by 2% and improved capital allowances for businesses were made permanent.

The announcements most relevant to farms and estates were:

• ‘Full expensing' for businesses was due to end in 2026 but will be made permanent. This means that for every £1 a business invests in machinery or equipment, they can claim back 25p in corporation tax. This makes the UK’s capital allowances regime one of the most generous in the world.

• Confirmation the government is reviewing a large number of responses to the taxation of environmental land management and ecosystem service markets consultation. It will provide a further update in spring 2024. This consultation has potential implications for both income and capital taxation.

• There were no changes to inheritance tax rates, allowances or reliefs.

• Councils will be able to offer “guaranteed accelerated decision dates” for major developments in England in exchange for a fee. Refunds will be issued if the deadline is not met.

• £110 million of funding over the next two years for the Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund. It will support local planning authorities to deliver high-quality local nutrient offsetting schemes unlocking up to 40,000 homes.

Reshuffle at Defra
Steve Barclay the new secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs has been joined at Defra by Robbie Moore MP. Mr Moore has been appointed as a parliamentary under-secretary of state. He formerly practised as a rural surveyor and business consultant in the north of England and grew up on his family's farm in Lincolnshire. Throughout his time in parliament, he has been a member of the EFRA committee which holds Defra to account. He also became a vice chair earlier this year of the all-party parliamentary group for uplands and hill farming. Mr Moore’s ministerial commitments have not been confirmed however - Trudy Harrison MP who resigned from the department was the minister for the natural environment and land use, and her responsibilities included climate change adaptation, forestry, designated landscapes and public access.

As for housing, Rachel Maclean was asked to step down as housing minister and was replaced by Lee Rowley, formerly the parliamentary under-secretary of state for local government and building safety. Mr Rowley will be the 16th housing minister since 2010. Simon Hoare became parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities which will continue to be led by Michael Gove.

Glyphosate reauthorised in the EU
The European Commission will reauthorise glyphosate for another 10 years but it is subject to new conditions and restrictions. Those conditions include prohibition of its use as a pre-harvest desiccant and action to protect non-target organisms. Representatives of EU member states were unable to reach a decision last month and a more recent vote by an appeal committee was also inconclusive. The decision was therefore left to the EU’s executive arm which approved its own compromise proposal.

The herbicide continues to prove controversial. French President Emmanuel Macron committed to ban glyphosate before 2021 but has since backpedalled. Germany plans to stop using it from next year but the decision could be challenged, as it was in Luxembourg, where its ban was overturned. In the UK, glyphosate use increased by 16% between 2016 and 2020 although the overall amount of pesticides used decreased. Whilst in office former Defra secretary of state Thérèse Coffey said farmers will continue to have access to glyphosate.

ENVIRONMENT & NATURAL CAPITAL

Funding to cut slurry emissions
Farmers in England can now apply for between £25,000 to £250,000 to replace, expand or build extra slurry stores. Changes for round two of the Slurry Infrastructure Grant include supporting up to eight months of storage for pig farms, allowing landlords to underwrite grant funding agreements and extending support eligibility to include slurry separators, covers for existing stores and new in-situ cast concrete stores. There are priority areas where applicants stand a greater chance of success, but last time around 30% of successful applicants were based outside these areas. If you would like to discuss the grant scheme please contact Georgina Sweeting.

PROPERTY & DEVELOPMENT

Carbon credits for decarbonising housing
The Powering Net Zero (PNZ) Group has developed the world’s first scheme which creates carbon credits for decarbonising housing stock by improving its thermal efficiency or lowering the carbon intensity of the heating source. The credits are known as Retrofit Credits and verify the emission reductions and social value of residential energy efficiency retrofit projects involving technologies like insulation and heat pumps. Once projects are complete the credits created can be sold to fund additional retrofit work. So far its pilot scheme has focused on the social housing sector with a pilot involving 22 housing associations and 6,716 homes across the UK.

Scotland: Tax encourages recycled materials
A new Bill in Scotland will seek to encourage the use of recycled materials in construction. If the Aggregates Tax Bill is approved by MSPs, the Scottish Government will introduce the tax from 1 April 2026. It would replace the UK Aggregates Levy and tax the sale or use of aggregates consisting of freshly extracted rock, gravel or sand.

BUSINESS & economy

Defra urged to reform 'unfair' payments
A study on Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme payment rates in England by environmental policy think tank Green Alliance has called for dramatic reform of how the schemes are being designed to account for the carbon value of the interventions. If carbon is priced at its current level under the Emissions Trading Scheme, the report estimates that upland farmers could double their income by planting half of their land with trees and continuing to graze the other half. Lowland cereal farmers on peat soils could triple their income if they were paid the carbon value of rewetting their soils to reduce emissions. Currently, this type of intervention is only being proposed within Landscape Recovery, which the authors argue most farmers are excluded from.

Although the ELM schemes are being designed to pay public money for public goods, payment rates are still based on income foregone rather than the public good value of carbon storage and sequestration. However, the report argues that the solution is not to increase the funding rate for low carbon-impact interventions such as agroforestry, but to focus funding on high-impact changes such as woodland creation and peatland rewetting and to make these available through ELM’s Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme.

OTHER RURAL NEWS

And finally… From pest to protein
Scientists at a Devon university are deliberately breeding a marine pest. Far from an act of delinquency, the scientists are hoping to farm the shipworms as an alternative source of protein that only needs waste wood and water to grow. Wild shipworms are already eaten in the Philippines, either raw or battered and fried. The researchers envisage the farmed version as a white meat substitute in foods like fish fingers and fishcakes. As shipworm is not the most marketable term, the Devon researchers have renamed them “naked clams”. Using a completely controlled system, the naked clam could grow to a harvestable size in only six months, whereas mussels and oysters can take up to two years.