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Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Farms are told to diversify – but they can't get the planning through
Peter Hogg's family have farmed at Causey Park, near Morpeth, under huge Northumberland skies, since 1854. With his daughter now involved, he has no plans for the centuries-old family business, which he runs with his brother Stephen, to shut up shop. But it has become far more challenging. Some farms have faced the loss of entire crops over the past two years due to record rainfall. Changes to inheritance tax and farm subsidies have put more pressure on Hogg than ever before, just at the point where he is readying himself to hand the business over to the next generation. Like farmers up and down the country, Hogg, 73, has a choice. It is not enough to simply work the land: you have to diversify – find new income streams – or bust. An obvious solution to the mounting financial pressures, for Hogg, was to convert unused farm buildings into holiday accommodation. Diversifying is just 'making use of everything – I suppose it's nothing new,' he says. As well as a mixed arable, beef and sheep farm, 'when our great-grandparents bought the place, there was a sandstone quarry, a clay mine. There was a brickworks. There's been all sorts going on.' He soon found out it was not that simple. 'The difficulties with planning laws mean that businesses are held back and don't grow,' he says. Behind every farm gate, there's a glut of red tape. The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has warned that farmers, and rural communities more broadly, are facing lengthy waits to secure planning permission, sometimes of five years or more. To illustrate this, the CLA sent Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to 38 councils in rural areas. Of the 35 that replied, 14 had stalled planning applications from before 2020 still waiting for approval. Dorset council, for instance, took an average of 1,372 days, or three years and nine months, to issue a decision. In one case in south Norfolk, a 2007 application for a recreational fishing lake took seven years to process before apparently stalling in 2014. Victoria Vyvyan, the CLA's president, said 'our planning system is in crisis and it's stagnating growth in the countryside.' In Hogg's case, an application to turn a disused farm building into a B&B took 18 months because of a quibble over adding a sunroom. 'It was exactly where there was a building that my father knocked off about 40 years ago. So we just thought, 'oh, we'll stick it back on,'' he continues. 'The planners came along and said, 'you need planning permission for that.' It took 18 months and £8,000 in planning fees, architectural drawings, building inspection fees and god knows what to get it through, and then once it was done, it cost £800 and a fortnight to put the thing up.' The majority of farmers have no choice but to turn to other sources of income, and are being actively encouraged to diversify their businesses: most commonly by letting out buildings for non-agricultural use, selling produce or, like Hogg, providing holiday accommodation. In most cases, it is no longer enough to work the land: government figures show that in 2023-24, even before sweeping reforms to inheritance tax were enacted, 30 per cent of farms in the UK failed to make a profit. 'You're trying to do your best to run a business, and then in every way they're putting blocks in front of you,' Hogg says. 'There's a load of bureaucracy in the way. We're trying to work our way towards being sustainable [as a business].' But the local authority's planning system makes this far harder than it needs to be. Henry Doble is the associate director of rural planning consultancy Acorus and advises farmers on a daily basis. 'On the one hand, you've got government ministers coming out and saying, 'well, tough, the inheritance tax [rise] has come in and you'd better go out and diversify',' he says. 'But it's not actually as simple as that, because of a whole raft of issues in the planning system. The main thing we're experiencing at the moment is just the cost and time involved.' Local authority planners are one thing, but farmers face another foe when it comes to securing planning permission: the great-crested newt. This species of newt, like bats, badgers, water voles and otters, is protected by legislation including the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. They are an old adversary: Boris Johnson once claimed 'newt-counting delays' were holding the country back. Rachel Reeves said that developers would no longer need to worry about 'the bats and the newts' in an attempt to kick-start Labour's ambitious house-building plans. Despite this, for farmers, they are still a going concern. Hogg says a local friend was widowed and decided to renovate an old farm building she owned that had previously been used for storage. 'She thought she would convert it back into a house and go and live in it,' he says. 'She had to apply for planning permissions, as you do, and they said you'll need to do a bat survey, an owl survey, a hedgehog survey, a crested newt survey, a toxicology report on the soil, in case there have been toxins stored in the shed, an environmental impact study… it took forever, because they said they can only do some in nesting season,' he continues. Some ecology surveys can only be done in certain seasons, which can add significant delays before an application has even been submitted. 'Eventually she got planning permission, but they said some of the wildlife surveys were now out of date, and she'd have to do them again, Hogg says. 'It cost her over £30,000 before she'd even bought a brick.' For small business owners and farmers who are short on cash, the lengthy surveys and the cost of building delays can be debilitating. These stories will likely resonate with farmers nationwide. Jeremy Clarkson was so frustrated by the red tape he encountered when he applied to build a restaurant and car park on his Diddly Squat farm near Chadlington, Oxfordshire, that he lobbied the government into changing planning laws last year. 'Clarkson's clause,' as it has been called, came into effect last May. Officially an extension of Class R and Q permitted development rights, the changes apply across all local authorities and were designed to allow farmers to diversify their businesses more easily by turning certain disused agricultural buildings into homes or shops without applying for planning permission. While this has gone some way in encouraging growth in the countryside, it does not seem to have cleared the backlog. 'I've seen a number of applications that technically should have been determined in eight weeks rumble on for 12 months or more,' says Mark Turner, a partner at Aaron & Partners solicitors who specialises in planning and the environment. 'I have, on occasion, seen applications drag on for five years.' This is an issue that the National Farmers Union (NFU) is all too aware of. In its newly published blueprint for growth, it calls on the Government to address planning delays by adequately funding the planning system and making a biodiversity net gain (BNG – a mandatory requirement in England for developers to leave the natural environment in a better state than before) exemption for development relating to agriculture. The changes permitted development rights have 'certainly provided a bit of encouragement and impetus in the industry for more diversification,' he adds, 'but the issue is still resources in local authorities – or a lack of resources. It can be difficult to get anything from them when it's needed.' Hogg says, all things considered, the situation is 'dismal'. 'Our farm will survive,' he says, 'but in an increasingly uncertain future.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
23-04-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Farms are told to diversify – but they can't get the planning through
Peter Hogg's family have farmed at Causey Park, near Morpeth, under huge Northumberland skies, since 1854. With his daughter now involved, he has no plans for the centuries-old family business, which he runs with his brother Stephen, to shut up shop. But it has become far more challenging. Some farms have faced the loss of entire crops over the past two years due to record rainfall. Changes to inheritance tax and farm subsidies have put more pressure on Hogg than ever before, just at the point where he is readying himself to hand the business over to the next generation. Like farmers up and down the country, Hogg, 73, has a choice. It is not enough to simply work the land: you have to diversify – find new income streams – or bust. An obvious solution to the mounting financial pressures, for Hogg, was to convert unused farm buildings into holiday accommodation. Diversifying is just 'making use of everything – I suppose it's nothing new,' he says. As well as a mixed arable, beef and sheep farm, 'when our great-grandparents bought the place, there was a sandstone quarry, a clay mine. There was a brickworks. There's been all sorts going on.' He soon found out it was not that simple. 'The difficulties with planning laws mean that businesses are held back and don't grow,' he says. Behind every farm gate, there's a glut of red tape. The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has warned that farmers, and rural communities more broadly, are facing lengthy waits to secure planning permission, sometimes of five years or more. To illustrate this, the CLA sent Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to 38 councils in rural areas. Of the 35 that replied, 14 had stalled planning applications from before 2020 still waiting for approval. Dorset council, for instance, took an average of 1,372 days, or three years and nine months, to issue a decision. In one case in south Norfolk, a 2007 application for a recreational fishing lake took seven years to process before apparently stalling in 2014. Victoria Vyvyan, the CLA's president, said 'our planning system is in crisis and it's stagnating growth in the countryside.' In Hogg's case, an application to turn a disused farm building into a B&B took 18 months because of a quibble over adding a sunroom. 'It was exactly where there was a building that my father knocked off about 40 years ago. So we just thought, 'oh, we'll stick it back on,'' he continues. 'The planners came along and said, 'you need planning permission for that.' It took 18 months and £8,000 in planning fees, architectural drawings, building inspection fees and god knows what to get it through, and then once it was done, it cost £800 and a fortnight to put the thing up.' The majority of farmers have no choice but to turn to other sources of income, and are being actively encouraged to diversify their businesses: most commonly by letting out buildings for non-agricultural use, selling produce or, like Hogg, providing holiday accommodation. In most cases, it is no longer enough to work the land: government figures show that in 2023-24, even before sweeping reforms to inheritance tax were enacted, 30 per cent of farms in the UK failed to make a profit. 'You're trying to do your best to run a business, and then in every way they're putting blocks in front of you,' Hogg says. 'There's a load of bureaucracy in the way. We're trying to work our way towards being sustainable [as a business].' But the local authority's planning system makes this far harder than it needs to be. Henry Doble is the associate director of rural planning consultancy Acorus and advises farmers on a daily basis. 'On the one hand, you've got government ministers coming out and saying, 'well, tough, the inheritance tax [rise] has come in and you'd better go out and diversify',' he says. 'But it's not actually as simple as that, because of a whole raft of issues in the planning system. The main thing we're experiencing at the moment is just the cost and time involved.' Local authority planners are one thing, but farmers face another foe when it comes to securing planning permission: the great-crested newt. This species of newt, like bats, badgers, water voles and otters, is protected by legislation including the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. They are an old adversary: Boris Johnson once claimed ' newt-counting delays ' were holding the country back. Rachel Reeves said that developers would no longer need to worry about ' the bats and the newts ' in an attempt to kick-start Labour's ambitious house-building plans. Despite this, for farmers, they are still a going concern. Hogg says a local friend was widowed and decided to renovate an old farm building she owned that had previously been used for storage. 'She thought she would convert it back into a house and go and live in it,' he says. 'She had to apply for planning permissions, as you do, and they said you'll need to do a bat survey, an owl survey, a hedgehog survey, a crested newt survey, a toxicology report on the soil, in case there have been toxins stored in the shed, an environmental impact study… it took forever, because they said they can only do some in nesting season,' he continues. Some ecology surveys can only be done in certain seasons, which can add significant delays before an application has even been submitted. 'Eventually she got planning permission, but they said some of the wildlife surveys were now out of date, and she'd have to do them again, Hogg says. 'It cost her over £30,000 before she'd even bought a brick.' For small business owners and farmers who are short on cash, the lengthy surveys and the cost of building delays can be debilitating. These stories will likely resonate with farmers nationwide. Jeremy Clarkson was so frustrated by the red tape he encountered when he applied to build a restaurant and car park on his Diddly Squat farm near Chadlington, Oxfordshire, that he lobbied the government into changing planning laws last year. ' Clarkson's clause,' as it has been called, came into effect last May. Officially an extension of Class R and Q permitted development rights, the changes apply across all local authorities and were designed to allow farmers to diversify their businesses more easily by turning certain disused agricultural buildings into homes or shops without applying for planning permission. While this has gone some way in encouraging growth in the countryside, it does not seem to have cleared the backlog. 'I've seen a number of applications that technically should have been determined in eight weeks rumble on for 12 months or more,' says Mark Turner, a partner at Aaron & Partners solicitors who specialises in planning and the environment. 'I have, on occasion, seen applications drag on for five years.' This is an issue that the National Farmers Union (NFU) is all too aware of. In its newly published blueprint for growth, it calls on the Government to address planning delays by adequately funding the planning system and making a biodiversity net gain (BNG – a mandatory requirement in England for developers to leave the natural environment in a better state than before) exemption for development relating to agriculture. The changes permitted development rights have 'certainly provided a bit of encouragement and impetus in the industry for more diversification,' he adds, 'but the issue is still resources in local authorities – or a lack of resources. It can be difficult to get anything from them when it's needed.' Hogg says, all things considered, the situation is 'dismal'. 'Our farm will survive,' he says, 'but in an increasingly uncertain future.'
Yahoo
23-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How Natural England became a green dictatorship
When Natural England disregarded nearly 200 objections to designate Penwith Moors a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Eric Murley was not happy. The environmental regulator's 2023 decision means farmers in the Cornish idyll have to apply for consent for a raft of activities, including ploughing. The confrontation has left 78-year-old Murley, who runs a 350-acre family dairy farm, hoping that the quango will one day reap what it sows. So, imagine his surprise when he found out last week that the Government is about to give Natural England the power to slap a compulsory purchase on his land. The reason? It's because the quango lies at the centre of the Government's ambitious plans to spark a housing revolution designed to build 1.5 million homes. Developers themselves will no longer be obliged to offset the environmental damage in the area of the building, with the inevitable delays. Instead, they'll pay into a national nature restoration fund. It will be Natural England's job to offset the environmental damage of the new large-scale developments by setting up nature reserves and rewilding land on a national as opposed to local basis. To this end, the draft of the new Planning and Infrastructure Bill, unveiled by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner earlier this month, gives Natural England powers to seize farmland, allotments and other green spaces for this environmental offsetting, which will free up sites for developers. But critics fear this conceals a breathtaking power grab by Natural England. When it comes into force, the bill will give local authorities in England, alongside Natural England, the power to seize farmland at 'bargain' rates. The backlash is hardly surprising: farmers have denounced the bill as a 'landgrab', 'Marxism', and the 'death of property rights', as well as another nail in the coffin of farming. 'Natural England? I wouldn't trust them with a barge pole to be perfectly honest,' says Murley. 'If they think they have a chance of getting it done, they'll come and jump in, regardless of the farmer. They aren't going to bother about us. They just push us aside. 'I have got no time for Natural England as a body at all. At all,' he adds. 'We have had several ministers down here over the last two and half years and every time I say to them 'Have you got any authority over Natural England?' And they say no. 'They are unanswerable. Look, can it be right in a democracy that a quango can effectively put a farm out of business?' Murley is not alone in looking at Natural England's burgeoning powers with alarm. 'Natural England was originally meant to be the advisor to the Government, but over the years it has been handed a series of executive powers that have turned it into judge, jury and executioner,' says Victoria Vyvyan, the president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA). 'Now no one can really challenge them.' The bill reflects both Sir Keir Starmer, and Rayner's, determination to clear the planning logjam for a largescale housing and infrastructure programme. The move to hand Natural England its extended powers is designed to help avoid delays and often protracted and expensive mitigation projects. These have included the infamous bat tunnel on the HS2 route with European rules on protecting habitat and wildlife still in place. The bill ballooned to £100 million. But what has particularly outraged farmers and landowners is that local authorities and Natural England will be able to buy the land at its agricultural value, which critics believe will impair the value of farms. The bill effectively removes 'hope value', or the potential development value of land. 'Housing and nature are not competing interests,' says Oliver Harmar, the chief strategy officer at Natural England. 'Sustainable development and nature recovery must go hand in hand, but the current planning system needs to change. 'We are working with the Government to deliver their ambition to grow nature and grow the economy for the benefit of everybody. This includes ensuring guidance is fit for purpose and moving toward better strategic planning to secure environmental improvements and enabling development. Natural England is fully accountable to the Secretary of State and Parliament.' Experts have told The Telegraph that the exact mechanisms by which Natural England would exercise their powers under the bill has yet to be spelt out. But Murley worries that he, along with any other landowner, would be rendered helpless in the face of a compulsory purchase order from Natural England. For Natural England's 'activist' chairman Tony Juniper, the decision to hand his quango such sweeping powers represents an extraordinary turnaround. In 2022, only three years after Juniper was appointed, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs floated the idea of closing it down. Tory critics had become increasingly concerned with what they viewed as Natural England's 'activist' agenda. Last year a group of Conservative MPs wrote to the then Defra secretary, Steve Barclay, urging him to strip Natural England of its SSSI powers. 'Natural England is completely independent and can make decisions without ministerial sign off, says Greg Smith, Tory MP for Mid Buckinghamshire. 'On the one hand we have Rachel Reeves attacking quangos and on the other they have given a quango with no democratic oversight the power to take land. 'At the end of the day this all points in the direction of less food security, loss of natural beauty and loss of rural areas.' A former minister, who did not want to be named, says: 'The main issue I had with Natural England was the gold plating of the powers they had, which, along with other quangos is becoming quite a threat to democracy.' He adds that he has come across 'farmers who were unhappy with Natural England' but when he went to Natural England 'Tony Juniper said, 'We have got the act… if you don't like it, ministers can change legislation'.' A life-long environmentalist and former Friends of the Earth director, Juniper has a long history of attacking governments on environmental issues. In 2011, before he joined Natural England, he was signatory to a letter that accused the Government of being 'on a path to become the most environmentally destructive government to hold power… since the environmental movement was born.' Since joining Natural England in 2019 Juniper has repeatedly promoted 'net zero' on social media despite Natural England's code of conduct's requirement for political neutrality. Juniper has also attacked Brexit and in a Tweet last month appeared to issue a coded dig at Kemi Badenoch's scepticism around net zero when reposted a tweet by Badenoch, marking Margaret Thatcher's election as Tory leader 50 years earlier. 'Baroness Thatcher was the first Prime Minister to take a political lead on climate change, & Teresa [sic] May when she was PM enacted the net zero goal for 2050,' he said. 'These distinguished climate leaders hopefully provide inspiration for their successors.' In 2023 it emerged that Natural England was accused of stalling plans to build up to 145,000 homes thanks to concerns about potential pollution of rivers. Natural England has a 'nutrient neutrality' policy, which derives from the European Court of Justice. These block development in designated areas unless it can be shown they would not increase levels of nitrogen or phosphorous in the rivers. Yet construction companies have long claimed that the bulk of waste flowing into rivers comes from farms, not housing and infrastructure projects. In the same year, Juniper was accused of failing to declare his membership of the National Trust, Wildlife Trusts and the RSPB before a key vote. The vote saw Natural England designate a large swathe of Penwith Moors an SSSI despite widespread objections. At the time Natural England said it 'strongly rejected' claims of conflicts of interests and that all board members had observed the relevant rules. Because of the SSSI designation, farmers, including Murley, said they were told that they would no longer be able to spread lime on the land to neutralise soil acidity and allow farming. 'So, in effect, they were stopping us from farming,' says Murley. 'They can effectively put a firm out of business with no compensation, because there is no compensation with SSSI.' The Cornishman is convinced that Natural England's management was determined to drive through the SSSI as a flagship development. 'We are going to make a big splash in West Cornwall,' says Murley. 'It was going to be a big deal for them, and they were going to force it through come what may.' 'I run this business with my wife and three sons,' he says. 'My sons now say to me... do we really need to be bothering with farming, and I've never heard this before. Talking about this still upsets me now.' Natural England says that Penwith SSSI was chosen on scientific evidence and reflected its statutory duty to protect areas of special environmental interest. The quango also says it always seeks to work with farmers and landowners and that it will provide consent for the majority of established farming activities. Murley says that Natural England had recently written to farmers in the SSSI to say they could now use lime, but he says that the damage had been done. Still, the Cornishman has some sage advice for any farmers should Natural England come rattling their front doors with their new expanded powers. 'My advice would be to politely tell them to get stuffed.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
23-03-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
How Natural England became a green dictatorship
When Natural England disregarded nearly 200 objections to designate Penwith Moors a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Eric Murley was not happy. The environmental regulator's 2023 decision means farmers in the Cornish idyll have to apply for consent for a raft of activities, including ploughing. The confrontation has left 78-year-old Murley, who runs a 350-acre family dairy farm, hoping that the quango will one day reap what it sows. So, imagine his surprise when he found out last week that the Government is about to give Natural England the power to slap a compulsory purchase on his land. The reason? It's because the quango lies at the centre of the Government's ambitious plans to spark a housing revolution designed to build 1.5 million homes. Developers themselves will no longer be obliged to offset the environmental damage in the area of the building, with the inevitable delays. Instead, they'll pay into a national nature restoration fund. It will be Natural England's job to offset the environmental damage of the new large-scale developments by setting up nature reserves and rewilding land on a national as opposed to local basis. To this end, the draft of the new Planning and Infrastructure Bill, unveiled by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner earlier this month, gives Natural England powers to seize farmland, allotments and other green spaces for this environmental offsetting, which will free up sites for developers. But critics fear this conceals a breathtaking power grab by Natural England. When it comes into force, the bill will give local authorities in England, alongside Natural England, the power to seize farmland at 'bargain' rates. The backlash is hardly surprising: farmers have denounced the bill as a 'landgrab', 'Marxism', and the 'death of property rights', as well as another nail in the coffin of farming. 'Natural England? I wouldn't trust them with a barge pole to be perfectly honest,' says Murley. 'If they think they have a chance of getting it done, they'll come and jump in, regardless of the farmer. They aren't going to bother about us. They just push us aside. 'I have got no time for Natural England as a body at all. At all,' he adds. 'We have had several ministers down here over the last two and half years and every time I say to them 'Have you got any authority over Natural England?' And they say no. 'They are unanswerable. Look, can it be right in a democracy that a quango can effectively put a farm out of business?' Murley is not alone in looking at Natural England's burgeoning powers with alarm. 'Natural England was originally meant to be the advisor to the Government, but over the years it has been handed a series of executive powers that have turned it into judge, jury and executioner,' says Victoria Vyvyan, the president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA). 'Now no one can really challenge them.' The bill reflects both Sir Keir Starmer, and Rayner's, determination to clear the planning logjam for a largescale housing and infrastructure programme. The move to hand Natural England its extended powers is designed to help avoid delays and often protracted and expensive mitigation projects. These have included the infamous bat tunnel on the HS2 route with European rules on protecting habitat and wildlife still in place. The bill ballooned to £100 million. But what has particularly outraged farmers and landowners is that local authorities and Natural England will be able to buy the land at its agricultural value, which critics believe will impair the value of farms. The bill effectively removes 'hope value', or the potential development value of land. 'Housing and nature are not competing interests,' says Oliver Harmar, the chief strategy officer at Natural England. 'Sustainable development and nature recovery must go hand in hand, but the current planning system needs to change. 'We are working with the Government to deliver their ambition to grow nature and grow the economy for the benefit of everybody. This includes ensuring guidance is fit for purpose and moving toward better strategic planning to secure environmental improvements and enabling development. Natural England is fully accountable to the Secretary of State and Parliament.' Experts have told The Telegraph that the exact mechanisms by which Natural England would exercise their powers under the bill has yet to be spelt out. But Murley worries that he, along with any other landowner, would be rendered helpless in the face of a compulsory purchase order from Natural England. For Natural England's 'activist' chairman Tony Juniper, the decision to hand his quango such sweeping powers represents an extraordinary turnaround. In 2022, only three years after Juniper was appointed, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs floated the idea of closing it down. Tory critics had become increasingly concerned with what they viewed as Natural England's 'activist' agenda. Last year a group of Conservative MPs wrote to the then Defra secretary, Steve Barclay, urging him to strip Natural England of its SSSI powers. 'Natural England is completely independent and can make decisions without ministerial sign off, says Greg Smith, Tory MP for Mid Buckinghamshire. 'On the one hand we have Rachel Reeves attacking quangos and on the other they have given a quango with no democratic oversight the power to take land. 'At the end of the day this all points in the direction of less food security, loss of natural beauty and loss of rural areas.' A former minister, who did not want to be named, says: 'The main issue I had with Natural England was the gold plating of the powers they had, which, along with other quangos is becoming quite a threat to democracy.' He adds that he has come across 'farmers who were unhappy with Natural England' but when he went to Natural England 'Tony Juniper said, 'We have got the act… if you don't like it, ministers can change legislation'.' 'Environmentally destructive' A life-long environmentalist and former Friends of the Earth director, Juniper has a long history of attacking governments on environmental issues. In 2011, before he joined Natural England, he was signatory to a letter that accused the Government of being 'on a path to become the most environmentally destructive government to hold power… since the environmental movement was born.' Since joining Natural England in 2019 Juniper has repeatedly promoted 'net zero' on social media despite Natural England's code of conduct's requirement for political neutrality. Juniper has also attacked Brexit and in a Tweet last month appeared to issue a coded dig at Kemi Badenoch's scepticism around net zero when reposted a tweet by Badenoch, marking Margaret Thatcher's election as Tory leader 50 years earlier. 'Baroness Thatcher was the first Prime Minister to take a political lead on climate change, & Teresa [sic] May when she was PM enacted the net zero goal for 2050,' he said. 'These distinguished climate leaders hopefully provide inspiration for their successors.' In 2023 it emerged that Natural England was accused of stalling plans to build up to 145,000 homes thanks to concerns about potential pollution of rivers. Natural England has a 'nutrient neutrality' policy, which derives from the European Court of Justice. These block development in designated areas unless it can be shown they would not increase levels of nitrogen or phosphorous in the rivers. Yet construction companies have long claimed that the bulk of waste flowing into rivers comes from farms, not housing and infrastructure projects. In the same year, Juniper was accused of failing to declare his membership of the National Trust, Wildlife Trusts and the RSPB before a key vote. The vote saw Natural England designate a large swathe of Penwith Moors an SSSI despite widespread objections. At the time Natural England said it 'strongly rejected' claims of conflicts of interests and that all board members had observed the relevant rules. Because of the SSSI designation, farmers, including Murley, said they were told that they would no longer be able to spread lime on the land to neutralise soil acidity and allow farming. 'So, in effect, they were stopping us from farming,' says Murley. 'They can effectively put a firm out of business with no compensation, because there is no compensation with SSSI.' The Cornishman is convinced that Natural England's management was determined to drive through the SSSI as a flagship development. 'We are going to make a big splash in West Cornwall,' says Murley. 'It was going to be a big deal for them, and they were going to force it through come what may.' 'I run this business with my wife and three sons,' he says. 'My sons now say to me... do we really need to be bothering with farming, and I've never heard this before. Talking about this still upsets me now.' Natural England says that Penwith SSSI was chosen on scientific evidence and reflected its statutory duty to protect areas of special environmental interest. The quango also says it always seeks to work with farmers and landowners and that it will provide consent for the majority of established farming activities. Murley says that Natural England had recently written to farmers in the SSSI to say they could now use lime, but he says that the damage had been done. Still, the Cornishman has some sage advice for any farmers should Natural England come rattling their front doors with their new expanded powers. 'My advice would be to politely tell them to get stuffed.'
Yahoo
23-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion: Closure of incentive scheme is appalling news for farmers
The abrupt closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) could undermine the work of progressive nature-friendly farmers, says Cath Crowther, East regional director for the Country Land and Business Association (CLA East). The government's announcement of the closure of the 2024 Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is appalling news for farmers and rural businesses as well as nature and biodiversity, at a time when the industry is still reeling from the Autumn Budget. SFI was the most ambitious, forward-thinking and environmentally-friendly agricultural policy seen anywhere in the world - it promised a fairer future for farmers and a greener future for the world. Despite this, the government has now announced that "SFI has reached its completion" and that it has stopped accepting new applications immediately. All existing SFI agreements will be paid to farmers, and outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will also be taken forward. The government said Environmental Land Management scheme agreements will remain in place, including SFI, and it will launch a new and improved SFI in 2026. The redesign of the scheme will follow the spending review, which will take place in June. The announcement came with a high degree of disingenuous messaging from the government. It has been made to appear as though this was something that was always planned. However, the reality is that since its launch, the SFI has been hampered by a stuttering roll-out, with uptake only increasing significantly in the last 12 months - all while basic payments were relentlessly reduced. The industry was very much under the impression that the scheme would continue to remain open, with Defra providing assurance that there would be minimal changes for SFI, apart from the addition of new actions later in 2025. In our region, there are many examples where land managers are demonstrating it is possible to farm the land and protect and enhance nature and the environment. This is now at serious risk and the businesses that had planned to enter SFI, but had not yet submitted an application, will need to review their business plans with urgency. The stop-start nature of these schemes does nothing to build confidence and this latest blow undermines the hard work of forward-thinking farmers and land managers who have put positive environmental outcomes at the heart of their businesses. The government must work with us, immediately, to find a solution.
