Farming News - Gloucestershire Deals New Blow to the Farming Ladder
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Gloucestershire Deals New Blow to the Farming Ladder
The Tenant Farmers Association has expressed its regret over the decision of Gloucestershire County Council to reduce the number of its county farms from 88 to 50 over the next 4 years dealing a major blow to the farming ladder.
TFA Chief Executive George Dunn said “Gloucestershire has previously been held up as an example of good practice in the management of its county farms estate combining the functions of providing farms to individuals to become farmers in their own account whilst raising significant capital receipts for council tax payers. It now seems to have abandoned the hallmarks of good estate management in a knee jerk reaction which will not provide best value for the council tax payers of the county”.
Since local government reorganisation in 1974, Gloucestershire County Council has raised around £50 million from strategic disposals of land for development. The bulk of this has been raised over the last 20 years. It has also secured a roughly similar value by way of Section 106 (planning gain) benefits from these sales through essential infrastructure investment such as new roads and schools. At the same time the Council has invested about £10 million back into its farms estate by way of modernisation and purchase of additional land to the extent that its total land holding on its rural estate has hardly changed at all through that time.
“Once farms are sold they are gone forever. There have been numerous occasions where the development benefit has been taken by the purchaser of the farm. The TFA is calling upon the county council to think again. It must continue with its successful long term, strategic and patient approach to disposals which will enable maximum benefit with minimum disruption,” said Mr Dunn.
“Ownership of county farms also assists local authorities directly in meeting wider objectives inrelation to countryside and environmental issues, access to the countryside, learning outside the classroom, planning policies, greenbelt management and assisting in the management flood risk. These benefits are part of the value of the farms to council tax payers and without the retention of the land bank, these benefits will be lost,” said Mr Dunn.
“The TFA has long advocated that there should be national co-ordination of the county farms estates and with the recent decision of Somerset and now Gloucestershire we will be stepping up our pressure on DEFRA to do so to avoid the damage to the farming ladder and loss of current and future value,” said Mr Dunn.