The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) is delighted that its strong lobbying has produced further fruit following the announcement by DEFRA that it will proceed with the appointment of a Commissioner for the Tenant Farming Sector in England.

TFA Chief Executive, George Dunn, said “In what has been an extremely dark week for farmers considering the October Budget, the announcement of the appointment of the Commissioner for the Tenant Farming Sector offers a shaft of much welcome light.”

The idea for the appointment of a Commissioner came from the recommendations of the Rock Review into agricultural tenancies, conducted by Baroness Kate Rock in 2022. That recommendation was accepted by the previous Government which announced that it would proceed with the appointment of a Commissioner this year. However, the subsequent calling of the General Election put that on hold. Nevertheless, the idea to appoint a Commissioner did have Cross-Party support.

“Following the publication of the recently agreed Code of Conduct for landlord/tenant relationships within agriculture, it was vital that the Government took the extra step of appointing a Commissioner to oversee that Code. This appointment will give that Code additional and much needed teeth,” said Mr Dunn.

The expectation is that the identity of the new Commissioner will be announced in the spring of next year following an open competition. The TFA very much hopes that the individual appointed will display similar characteristics to the current incumbent of the role north of the border in Scotland, Bob McIntosh.

“Bob McIntosh has shown what can be achieved in what has been a pretty fraught landlord/tenant environment north of the border. And with a TFA survey concluding that 30% of tenants felt bullied or harassed by their landlords and 37% by their landlords’ agents, clearly there is some very important work to do south of the border. The TFA looks forward to working with whoever DEFRA appoints to this important role to ensure we have a resilient and fair landlord tenant sector within agriculture for England,” said Mr Dunn.

The terms of reference produced by DEFRA suggest that the Commissioner will largely be looking at dealing with complaints on a confidential basis and will report to the Farm Tenancy Forum. Depending on the workload, it is envisaged that the new Commissioner will work between three and five days per week.

“As well as reacting to complaints, the TFA believes that there is a role for the new Commissioner to provide a sounding board for DEFRA and wider Government to tenant proof it’s policies, statutes and regulations. Additionally, the TFA would want to see the Commissioner conduct an overview of the conduct of formal dispute resolution facilities, including arbitration, within the landlord tenant sector to see how they can be streamlined, made more cost-effective and less burdensome,” said Mr Dunn.