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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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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:…

PLANNING PERMISSION

How to meet environmental requirements when developing land

Farmers considering developing land need to consider the impact of the proposed project on biodiversity and whether the site itself could pose a risk to future residents. While a proposed…

BUSINESS CLINIC

Business Clinic: What you need to know about bat surveys

Whether it’s a legal, tax, insurance, management or land issue, Farmers Weekly’s experts can help. Here, Charlene Sussums-Lewis of Carter Jonas advises on a planning issue. Q: I’m looking into…

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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…

BUSINESS

What farmers need to know about the new telecoms code

A new code covering mobile phone and broadband infrastructure is to come into force later this year – affecting all landowners with telecoms equipment on their land. So what are…

BUSINESS

Why the CIL planning tax is costing farmers thousands

Farmers putting up agricultural buildings and houses are falling foul of a planning tax that is leaving some facing bills as high as £26,000. Half of all councils in England and…