The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) National Chair, Robert Martin, has used his report to the TFA’s Annual General Meeting to call for Government, landlords and the wider agricultural industry to recognise the urgency of safeguarding the future of the tenanted sector of agriculture across England and Wales as it faces a period of significant challenge.

Mr Martin warned that major policy changes, particularly on Inheritance Tax and environmental funding, are reshaping the behaviour of private estates often to the detriment of farm tenants.

“With estates preparing for potential Inheritance Tax liabilities, we are seeing landlords increasingly looking to end tenancies whilst seeking alternative land uses with potentially higher returns or reducing term lengths on new tenancies, raising concerns for business continuity and long‑term resilience within the tenanted sector. We have had plenty of conversations with TFA members who are worried about the future of their businesses. Recent DEFRA figures suggest that there was a 6% drop in the number of Farm Business Tenancy (FBT) agreements between 2024 and 2025 and around 10,000 fewer since 2018. This cannot be good for the agricultural sector as a whole,” said Mr Martin.

However, Mr Martin said he was proud of the TFA’s recent lobbying achievements on behalf of the sector.

“The TFA continues to have truly important and meaningful impact in a broad range of areas and remains the consistent, dedicated and reasoned voice of tenant farmers in national policy debates. The TFA’s lobbying has seen improvements to the Government’s Inheritance Tax policy with the introduction of higher thresholds and spousal transfers which were changes the TFA had pressed for when others were not,” said Mr Martin.

“However, we need to see the Government move to incentivise longer‑term FBTs by allowing landlords letting land on agreements of 10 years or more the opportunity to claim the land value as part of their zero-rate threshold for Inheritance Tax. This has been a long-term policy goal of the TFA to bring a greater degree of resilience and sustainability to the let sector, and we will continue to push it,” said Mr Martin.

Mr Martin also reiterated the TFA’s long‑standing call to ensure compensation for tenants losing land to development reflects actual losses, not outdated statutory caps, a problem highlighted by the increasing number of solar and infrastructure schemes affecting tenanted land.

Mr Martin pointed to the appointment of Alan Laidlaw, England’s first Commissioner for the Tenant Farming Sector, as another key achievement of TFA lobbying. He praised the early engagement being reported by the Commissioner but warned about the scale of the challenge.

“The TFA’s own research suggests that around 30% of tenants feel bullied or intimidated by their landlords and 37% say the same of their landlords’ agents. There may be a lot of rot to deal with, and tenants need to be encouraged not to be fearful to raise issues with the Commissioner. Landlords must embed the Agricultural Landlord and Tenant Code of Practice published in 2024 within tenancy agreements and ensure to abide by its terms. It would be good to see landlords signing up to contractual obligations to refer disputes about compliance with the Code to the Commissioner,” said Mr Martin.

Reflecting on the turbulence surrounding England’s Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), Mr Martin criticised DEFRA’s abrupt closure of the scheme in 2025 but said he was hopeful that the announcement made about the reopening of the scheme later this year would offer opportunity.

“The closure of the SFI in 2025 left farmers feeling betrayed and frustrated after being encouraged for years to engage in environmental land management programmes. The planned reopening of the scheme this year hopefully signals a better way forward. However, there continues to be uncertainty around the level of the scheme budget for which clarity and transparency is needed. I’m also pleased to see that the Government has added safeguards, such as the £100,000 payment cap which will assist in preventing large landowners from gaming the system at the expense of working farmers,” said Mr Martin.

Turning specifically to Wales, Mr Martin praised the work TFA Cymru had been undertaking to ensure tenant farmers can access the new Welsh Sustainable Farming Scheme even where tenancy agreements impose restrictions.

“We are grateful to the Welsh Government for taking a very pragmatic approach to its new scheme by giving tenant farmers the confidence to join by not penalising them for actions required by the scheme which cannot be delivered due to restrictions within their tenancy agreements or the legislation which governs them. We also hope that Rural Payments Wales will take a proportionate and flexible approach to how it administers the new scheme is farmers across Wales get used to the fundamental change to the policy landscape,” said Mr Martin.

In concluding his remarks, Mr Martin emphasised the TFA’s continuing commitment to member support, having delivered 8,000 advisory consultations totalling 1,700 hours in the year to October 2025, which he described as a significant input into the resilience and sustainability of the sector.

“I would urge all tenant farmers to take up membership of the TFA. Whilst we have achieved much, imagine how much more could be achieved if we had double the number of members. The TFA has been tireless in support of all tenant farmers and it has been an honour to be at the helm of this great ship over the past two years as its National Chair. As I enter my third and final year, whilst there is much to do, I look forward to working with the dedicated staff team in delivering for the sector,” said Mr Martin.