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Know How / Planning permission

Farmers looking to erect a new shed, convert a redundant barn or sell land for development will find themselves navigating the planning system. Read practical advice on topics such as permitted development rights, how to approach a planning application and your rights if you have been affected by a compulsory purchase order.

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BUSINESS CLINIC

Business Clinic: Should I respond council's planning request?

Whether you have a legal, tax, insurance, management or land issue, Farmers Weekly’s Business Clinic experts can help. Here, James Cordery of Carter Jonas advises on the process for designating…

BUSINESS

Business clinic: How do we prove holiday use is not viable?

Whether you have a legal, tax, insurance, management or land issue, Farmers Weekly’s Business Clinic experts can help. Here, Nicola Palfrey of Carter Jonas advises on what evidence is needed…

PLANNING PERMISSION

Advice on gaining planning permission for listed buildings

Owners of buildings with special interest must fully understand their assets and their options before applying for planning permission to avoid being stymied by their status. The team at Berrys…

LAND MARKETS

The land opportunities for farmers in a post-lockdown world

At a time when the public has grown a greater appreciation for the countryside, local food and new activities, farmers should be seeking chances to benefit. The Covid-19 pandemic and…

BUSINESS CLINIC

Business Clinic: How is coronavirus affecting planning?

Whether you have a legal, tax, insurance, management or land issue, Farmers Weekly’s Business Clinic experts can help. Alex Madden, head of planning at law firm Thrings, explains how the…

HOUSING AND HANDLING

The costs and benefits of installing a cow underpass

Cow underpasses can allow herds to graze less accessible acres without the trouble of halting road traffic flow. An underpass is a large large box culvert made from precast concrete,…

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Biodiversity Net Gain – what is it, how will it work?

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requires the effect on biodiversity of a new development to be quantified, and following development, the overall amount of natural habitat to be enhanced and left…

PLANNING PERMISSION

Farm buildings: Know your permitted development rights

Permitted development rights (PDRs) are useful procedures that make certain types of development quicker, easier and cheaper. They allow landowners to build, extend, develop, convert, excavate or carry out engineering…

DIVERSIFICATION

So you want to... build a reservoir?

Erratic weather conditions and the climate change emergency has put the water abstraction licensing system in the spotlight, with the government committed to ending damaging abstraction from rivers and groundwater.…

BUSINESS CLINIC

Business Clinic: What should I consider for reservoir plan?

Whether you have a legal, tax, insurance, management or land issue, Farmers Weekly’s Business Clinic experts can help. Building a reservoir is a challenge in itself. Bringing in 'waste' materials…

BUSINESS CLINIC

Business Clinic: Changing holiday lets to residential lets

Whether you have a legal, tax, insurance, management or land issue, Farmers Weekly’s Business Clinic experts can help. Holiday lets can be challenging to market and manage. Stephen Richards of Carter…

BUSINESS CLINIC

Business Clinic: Lifting an agricultural tie on property

Whether it’s a legal, tax, insurance, management or land issue, Farmers Weekly’s experts can help. Here, Alex Madden of Thrings advises on lifting an agricultural tie from a farmhouse. Q:…

Insights

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PLANNING PERMISSION

Planning system shake-up: Pluses and pitfalls for farmers

Government plans to shake up the planning system in order to create more and better houses are welcome but risk leaving the rural community behind, say experts. This month sees…

PLANNING PERMISSION

Biggest planning shake-up in years needs farmer involvement

Government housing secretary Robert Jenrick’s white paper – Planning for the Future – was released last week, alongside the launch of a public consultation on the issue. The unveiling was…

SUCCESSION PLANNING

How a second house can be added to farm in a succession plan

Adding a second house to a farm as part of succession procedures can be made easier in Wales by a little-known planning exemption. The Welsh government introduced Technical Advice Notice…

PLANNING PERMISSION

Coronavirus: Planning and development process faces delays

Planning applications and the development process face delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the effect will be temporary, say experts. Local authority planning committees, which meet to determine applications…

PLANNING PERMISSION

PDR applications still hampered by council misinterpretation

The acceptance rate for permitted development rights (PDRs) applications has risen to 80%, showing progress has been made compared with the previously lesser-known and misunderstood system. PDRs enable certain types…

PLANNING PERMISSION

How Class Q development rights are working in practice

There has been a mixed reception to permitted development rights (PDRs) allowing the change of use of agricultural buildings to residential units, writes Stephanie Baker, senior planning officer at Hart…

TAX

Farmers caught in development tax postcode lottery

Agricultural buildings and developments are being taxed inconsistently across Britain, at a cost of thousands of pounds to the farmers caught up in a postcode lottery. The community infrastructure levy…

BUSINESS

New policy could make it easier to build rural housing

More than one in four CLA members want to build affordable housing. A new way to develop more homes of this type in the countryside is being proposed by the…

BUSINESS

Housebuilding boom - what does it mean for farmers?

Farmers risk losing potential land value to the government-backed boom in construction projects unless they take a more active role in the development process, planning experts have warned. Both the…