Future means fewer farmers working more land

07 April 1998

‘Future means fewer farmers working more land’

THE family farm of the near future will comprise one person on 607.05 arable hectares (1,500 acres), claims Paul Pridmore, president of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in England, an owner-occupier and tenant farmer.

He told a meeting with his Scottish counterparts in Edinburgh, Scotland, that the change would not reduce demand to buy or rent land.

He said farm business tenancies were a good thing because of their flexibility and he said he was surprised a consensus had not been obtained in Scotland.

Farm business tenancies became legal in England and Wales in September 1995. They have increased the area of land available for rent. He said the argument that most of these tenancies had been taken by existing farmers to extend their business was misguided.

He said it was not lack of a tenancy which kept out new entrants but a lack of capital.

• The Scotsman 07/04/98 page 28