New rights will allow more dwellings and a larger floor space. The Renters’ Reform Bill has progressed and is now in the House of Lords - it is unlikely ‘no fault’ notices to quit will be banned before the next election.

The Welsh government has listened to farmers’ protests, its new Rural Affairs Secretary says he is committed to working in partnership and has announced a round table to help refine the planned Sustainable Farming Scheme. In Scotland, attention has turned to developing its Biodiversity Net Gain policy as its wildlife regulator highlights some shortcomings with England’s metric.

FOOD & FARMING

Wales: Sustainable Farming Scheme to be revised
Following protests about Wales’ planned Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS), Huw Irranca-Davies, Wales’ Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs has released a statement emphasising a commitment to work in partnership to move forward with plans for the scheme. He said: “We have had a seven-year conversation to design a future farming support scheme that works for Wales. I am committed to keep listening to and, working with, farmers and all stakeholders to develop a scheme that will help deliver against our ambition for Wales to be a world leader in sustainable farming.”

He announced the creation of a SFS ministerial roundtable which he will chair. It will be made up of farmers, representative organisations such as the farming unions, and other stakeholders with an interest in achieving a sustainable agricultural industry in Wales. The roundtable will review the key programme outputs and critical steps leading to the development of a revised scheme, although final decisions will remain with Welsh Ministers. It will hold its first meeting in May and the cabinet secretary is also updating Senedd Members on 14 May on the latest developments regarding the SFS and how he plans to make progress.

In response to concern about the extent of afforestation required by the SFS, one of the first tasks of the SFS ministerial roundtable will be to investigate alternative ways of achieving additional carbon sequestration through the SFS.

Water Restoration Fund
Farmers in England can apply for a grant to improve freshwater habitats. The Water Restoration Fund offers grants to support projects which improve the water environment of rivers and their headwaters, lakes, canals, ponds, wetlands and estuaries. Its application deadline is 7 June. There are two types of grant available:

• Development grants offering £75,000 to £250,000 for building capability
• Delivery grants offering £500,000 to £2 million to support projects that have already been planned.

The £11 million budget comes from water company fines for environmental damage. Its allocation will correlate with the amount raised in each region:

• Anglian Water region: £3,085,000
• South West Water region: £2,150,000
• Thames Water region: £3,334,000
• United Utilities region: £800,000
• Yorkshire Water region: £1,600,750

Groups of English farmers can also apply for a Local Resource Option (LRO) screening study. An LRO is a water resources scheme that improves the resilience or supply of water in a local area. The studies can be used to identify, screen, and rank local water resource options for farmers and growers in a given area. They might consider water rights trading, farm storage reservoirs, rainwater harvesting, water sharing as well as numerous other options. The Environment Agency is accepting applications until 16 June. If you would like to discuss a water resource project please contact Daniel Murphy.

Wales: Slurry grants and inspections
£20 million has been committed to two schemes; the Nutrient Management Investment Scheme and the Small Grants – Yard Coverings scheme. Both are designed to help farmers comply with the Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) Regulations 2021. They will support slurry storage and management to help improve nutrient management. An increased maximum contribution of 50% will be paid towards certain project costs.

An enhanced farm pollution inspection team has also been announced. Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is selecting 16 environmental officers to inspect farms and help them meet the new pollution rules. They will be in post by the end of the summer and focus on hot spot areas. Inspectors will look for 'high risk' activities, such as high levels of livestock manures or importing organic manures, including digestate, biosolids and other wastes recovered to land. Nichola Salter, advisor of agricultural regulations at NRW, said compliance would be ensured proportionately, adding that, depending on the severity of non-compliance, direction would be provided before enforcement.

SFI progress update
Defra’s latest update on the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) reports 13,400 SFI 2023 agreements are in place and 20,000 applications have been received overall. The live applications cover 2 million hectares – within this 430,000 hectares (over 20%) are in the IPM4 no insecticide use option, 175,000 hectares are herbal leys (SAM3) and 124,000 hectares are multi-species winter cover crops (SAM2). It is estimated the management of 34,000 kilometres of hedgerows is now supported through the SFI. Defra has classified nine options as allowing less productive land to be taken out of production - 9% of agreement holders have entered more than 25% of their farm into these options. Defra has since placed a 25% cap on the extent to which six of these options can be combined going forward. If you would like to discuss the SFI please contact Georgina Sweeting.

POLICY

Renters' Reform Bill progresses
The government's Renters' Reform Bill has had its third reading in the House of Commons and moved into the House of Lords. Before leaving the Commons the government inserted a new clause saying it would wait to outlaw Section 21 evictions until a review of the court system had taken place. MPs voted 287 to 144 in favour of the amendment. A Labour amendment to ensure the abolition of Section 21 evictions would come into force on Royal Assent was defeated by 282 votes to 158. Housing Secretary Michael Gove has now said there can be no guarantee that no-fault evictions will be banned in England by the next general election. While he hopes they will be, he said the House of Lords will determine the rate of progress.

More changes to improve biosecurity
Changes are being made to how the UK imports food, animal and plant products. Products that present a ‘medium’ biosecurity risk will undergo identity and physical checks upon arrival and ‘high risk’ goods will now be checked at the border, rather than the destination. Most goods from the EU (apart from high risk) have been entering the UK without checks due to a temporary measure allowing businesses time to adapt to the incoming changes. There are also pilots underway using innovative technologies and business data to see if checks can be reduced while maintaining thorough biosecurity and food safety standards.

Progress on the Rock Review
One year on from the publication of the government’s response to the Rock Review, it has published a progress update. Of the 75 commitments the report states the government has completed or is working on 64. Some of those successes include the establishment of the Farm Tenancy Forum which went on to publish the Agricultural Landlord and Tenant Code of Practice on 8 April 2024, another recommendation of the Rock Review. Other areas of progress include:

• Improving tenants’ access to policies and schemes, such as by offering three-year agreements for the Sustainable Farming Incentive
• Improving accessibility to capital grant offers, for example, tenants are no longer required to have a tenancy agreement of five years or more to access grants
• Removing tax barriers to enable landlords and tenants to access longer-term environmental schemes, such as by extending Agricultural Property Relief to include land under environmental agreements.

Policy must consider contractors
Contractors must remain at the forefront of government funding according to a new manifesto released by the National Association of Agricultural Contractors (NAAC). More than nine-in-10 farms (91%) use a contractor. In the manifesto, the NAAC makes several requests:

• Allow contractors to use their expertise to judge when inputs can be applied, rather than be managed by calendar dates set in government legislation and guidance
• Contractors must remain at the forefront of Government funding and policy to bring forward new technology in agriculture
• Retain a focus on food security and ensure productive farmland can be used for sustainable farming
• Requests for government support to 'cultivate' the next generation of farm staff.

ENVIRONMENT & NATURAL CAPITAL

Scotland: biodiversity metric to be developed
NatureScot has been tasked with developing a biodiversity metric for Scotland’s planning system. The wildlife regulator has identified key issues with the English metric and is specifically seeking views on these as it develops the Scottish metric, including:

• How irreplaceable habitats are accounted for. The regulator notes that all irreplaceable habitats should be recognised in Scotland’s metric, in contrast to England’s metric, where such habitats are excluded
• Concerns with England’s consideration of renewable energy projects, which is based on a baseline measure incorporating all habitats within the planning application’s red-line boundary
• England’s reliance on the UK Habitat Classification System (UKHab) to underpin the identification of individual habitats.

In some scenarios, such as England’s use of spatial risk factors and how the distinctiveness of a habitat is determined, NatureScot acknowledges the appropriateness of the approach. However, it emphasises that some work will be needed to ensure these approaches are adapted to the Scottish environment. The consultation on A Biodiversity Metric for Scotland’s Planning System will remain open until 10 May.

Scotland: Deer management targets met
Deer management efforts in Scotland have successfully met targets aimed at safeguarding nature in key areas. Through long-term collaboration between estates, progress has been made in North Ross and Caenlochan this winter, where control agreements are in place. Section 7 of the Deer (Scotland) Act 1996 established a framework for supporting landowners and managers to carry out specific deer management measures, aligning with agreed-upon targets.

North Ross has a Section 7 agreement in place covering around 87,832 ha which is collectively being actioned by the land managers, NatureScot and North Ross Deer Management Group whose concerted efforts have effectively reduced deer density to meet targets over the last five years. More recently a Section 7 agreement has been agreed covering 33,488 ha in Caenlochan aimed at shrinking the red deer population to ten deer per km2 by spring 2026. Key targets for the first year of a three-year reduction cull have now been achieved.

New project to map landowners in Scotland
A new project by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) aims to map all landowners in Scotland to better understand whether land transactions are being driven by land use change, such as achieving net zero. It will also investigate the influence of financial support including carbon schemes on land values.

As part of an ongoing study, SRUC researchers constructed a map covering current land ownership, recent sales, monetary flows and land use and applied this to a small area of the Spey catchment. Alongside the mapping work, a landownership typology was created, categorising individual parcels of land according to ownership, land use, type, size descriptor and any defining characteristics. Next, the group will apply this methodology to three further sites; the Tweed catchment, Shetland Islands and Galloway and South Ayrshire Biosphere Reserve.

PROPERTY & DEVELOPMENT

Agricultural permitted development rights are expanded
Most of the proposed changes to class Q and R permitted development rights (PDR) will be introduced in England. The rights allow the conversion of farm buildings to residential and commercial use and will be expanded from 21 May 2024. The main changes for class Q agricultural to residential rights are:

• The rights can be used for agricultural buildings that are no longer part of an agricultural unit
• The maximum number of homes that can be delivered on an agricultural unit increases from five to 10
• Each dwelling is limited to a 150 square metre maximum floor space - reduced from 465 square metres
• An overall maximum of 1,000 square metres of floor space can change use - this includes all Class Q conversions on the unit to date
• A single-storey rear extension of up to four metres in depth is allowed - provided the land was a hard surface (e.g. concrete yard) on or before 24 July 2023.

Crucially the building must have an existing highway access. The use of class Q rights is not going to be allowed in National Parks and National Landscapes (formerly AONBs).

Class R permitted development rights are available for converting agricultural buildings to commercial uses. They will be amended to allow conversions and curtilage land to be used for outdoor sports, recreation or fitness uses and for general industrial use provided it is to process produce from the farm for sale on site. The floor space limit has been doubled to 1,000 square metres.

Rights allowing farmers to build new farm buildings are changing too. For farms over five hectares in area, erecting agricultural buildings up to 1,500 square metres will be possible – the current limit is 1,000 square metres. On smaller holdings extensions of up to 25% will be allowed. For more information on PDR contact Andrew Watson.

New powers to build more affordable homes
Councils are now able to buy land for development through the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders without paying ‘hope value’ costs. The powers contained in the Levelling-up & Regeneration Act 2023 allow bodies using CPOs, such as Homes England and local councils, to ask the Secretary of State to remove hope value. The request can only be made under the condition that the development is in the public interest and is facilitating affordable or social housing, health or educational uses. While some groups have praised the move for facilitating the construction of more desperately needed housing, others have suggested it could prove an obstacle to investment and could leave councils facing litigation.

Protecting heat network customers
The government has published its response to a consultation on consumer protections for those connected to heat networks for their heating needs. It intends to introduce compensation for occupants connected to a heat network if they lose access to heating, and ensure fairer pricing, and clearer and easier-to-understand billing. Protections for vulnerable customers will also be improved. Ofgem is going to become the regulator, allowing it to step in during cases of disproportionate pricing or poor customer service. The Energy Ombudsman will support consumers with complaints with heat network operators, and Citizens Advice will be the statutory advocacy organisation providing support for consumers on heat networks.

BUSINESS & economy

Countryside 'cut off' by 3G shutdown
The countryside is being cut off by the switch-off of the 3G signal. Ofcom data show that 7% of Britain, virtually all of which is in the countryside, has no access to the 4G and 5G networks which are replacing 3G. An extra 2% of the country is expected to be thrown into data blackspots by the switch-off. Countryside groups say people living in rural areas are being left isolated and the switch-off will risk lives, with farmers left without location services. Vodafone and EE are the first networks to complete the full 3G switch-off across their networks, with Three starting later this year and O2 next year. Former Environment Minister George Eustice has proposed that providers should be required to maintain 3G coverage in some rural areas until 4G becomes available.

Wales: Fund for food festivals
A fund to support food and drink festivals and events across Wales is open for applications until 7 June. It will support projects that improve connections between food festivals and events with agriculture, food processing, tourism destinations and the food service sector.

OTHER RURAL NEWS

And finally…
Put a cork in it!

Did you know there is not much point in the age-old ritual of tasting wine at a restaurant before it’s poured? At the turn of the century, as many as one in ten bottles were hit by ‘wet cardboard’ taint of corked wine, yet no one knew the cause. British supermarkets, unhappy about the number of bottles being returned, threatened to sell only screw-capped bottles and so the wine and cork industries were forced to act. The Quercus Project identified trichloroanisole as the culprit, a compound created through the interaction between fungi naturally found in cork and certain cleaning products used in winery sterilisation. This led to new practices at cork manufacturing and bottling sites, such as storing cork on metal plinths and replacing chlorine washing with steam cleaning. As a result, only around one in two hundred bottles are now affected. Brands are now even returning to cork because research shows consumers prefer it and it is a more sustainable product.

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