Law & Land - News Round Up

Seasonal workers scheme extended to 2024

Following a review of the pilot seasonal worker scheme, the government confirmed that an additional 30,000 visas would be available in 2022 to recruit more migrant seasonal workers for the horticulture sector, to include ornamentals as well as food crops. Changes following the review include an obligation to pay a minimum salary. Although the scheme has been extended to 2024, the number of available visas will start to reduce in 2023 in an effort to reduce long term reliance on migrant pickers and to encourage the sector to attract more UK workers and invest in automation. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has severely criticised the government’s basic lack of understanding of the sector and its approach to labour shortages

Rolling timetable for SFI

The government has removed the six week application window for applying for a Sustainable Farming Incentive standards agreement. Instead, applications for the three year agreements, expected to open in June for English farmers eligible for the BPS, will be taken on a rolling basis. This is ostensibly to help the RPA manage its payment process more efficiently, with payments being made quarterly. Three standards are being introduced this year: arable and horticultural soils; improved grassland soils; and moorland. There will be an introductory and intermediate level within each standard and farmers can decide which eligible parts of the farm they want to enter into the scheme.

Autumn muckspreading changes

The government has had a change of heart and is now allowing farmers to spread organic matter this autumn within the parameters of operation established in the Farming Rules for Water introduced in 2018. Farmers will still need to have a nutrient management plan, not to spread more than the land and crops need, and to take ‘appropriate reasonable precautions’ to avoid pollution by, for instance, establishing a green cover crop by 15 October. If no cover crop is planning, then this decision must be justified. There are time limits for applying high RAN organic manure:

Tenancy Working Group

Defra has set up a new Tenancy Working Group, headed by Baroness Kate Rock whose family are Dorset tenant farmers. The Group will advise the government on how the ELMS (and related schemes) should be configured so that tenant farmers are able to benefit. Tenant farmers have expressed concerns that the schemes have been designed primarily with owner-occupiers in mind, and have failed to consider the impact that restrictive clauses within tenancy agreements, and security of tenure issues – particularly FBTs, may have on tenants. Another concern is the potential threat of landlords regaining tenanted land in order to take direct advantage of the schemes. The Group will report later in the year. The Tenant Farmers Association is backing the initiative.

Woodland creation grants

In January Defra, in partnership with the Forestry Commission, launched grant schemes and access to specialist advice to enable farmers and landowners to plant new woodland. Grants of up to £10,000 per hectare of new woodland are available. There are also grants available for woodland management via Countryside Stewardship, Higher Tier scheme as well as various Innovation Funds. The aim is to target marginal or unproductive land and encourage farmers to start planting now: once planted, the woodland can be transferred to ELMs in due course without the funding having to be repaid.

New powers to stamp out hare coursing

There are new powers to combat hare coursing, which has become an increasingly serious menace in several parts of the country. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act increases the penalty for hare coursing to an unlimited fine and up to six months imprisonment; introduces new criminal offences around trespassing with a dog with the intent of pursuing a hare; and gives the courts new powers to enable the police to recover kennelling costs and to disqualify an offender from keeping a dog.

Holiday cottages attract Community Infrastructure Levy

Anyone planning to convert redundant outbuildings into holiday cottages should be aware that, following a recent decision, any such development will attract the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). This levy is charged by planning authorities on new developments to help fund necessary infrastructure in their area and is based on a number of factors including location and square footage. A developer, who built nine holiday cottages around a courtyard, unsuccessfully challenged his local charging authority that the cottages should not attract the levy. He argued that they fell within class CI (hotels, boarding and guest houses) rather than class C3 (dwelling houses). The registered valuer agreed with the charging authority that holiday cottages did fall within class C3 and were therefore liable for the levy.