Agricultural tenancies due for overhaul by Law Commission
© Tim Scrivener The Law Commission has committed to a full review of agricultural tenancy legislation in England and Wales to determine whether existing laws impede tenant farmers.
It aims to consider whether agricultural tenants at present have enough security in their tenancies to be able to maintain their existing businesses, invest for the future, and diversify.
The review was first announced by the commission on 4 September, with further information on the next steps and timings to be announced in due course.
See also: Tenant Farming Commissioner ready to face challenges head-on
The tenanted sector represents a significant proportion of land, with Defra estimating that roughly a third of farmland in England is tenanted and about 45% of holdings.
Meanwhile, the NFU says roughly 60% of its members are tenant farmers in one way or another.
At the NFU Tenant Farmers Conference on 23 October, deputy president David Exwood welcomed the review and said he looked forward to seeing what solutions it came up with and what could be done.
Tenant farmers commissioner Alan Laidlaw added: “Having the resources of the Law Commission available to look at the sector has got to be a good thing.”
He said his own involvement with the review had so far been solely around timescales and processes.
Mr Laidlaw played down his own impact on the review, but suggested his direct
discussions with tenant and landlords may help provide data and have some influence.
Tenant farmers were encouraged by Mr Laidlaw to feed their own views and experiences into the review, either directly or through relevant membership organisations.
NFU senior rural surveyor Louise Staples said the Law Commission had outlined the clear difference between the two existing types of agricultural tenancy.
Agricultural Holdings Act (AHA) agreements typically provide lifetime security of tenure, rent control, and often succession rights, while farm business tenancies (FBT) do not have any fixed statutory period, succession rights, or rent control.
Prospective timeline
Ms Staples said: “When the Law Commission takes this forward, it normally takes a long time and they carry out quite a long review first.
“They will go and have meetings and I expect we at the NFU will end up having a meeting with them to discuss what we think might be issues.
“Once they have gathered all of that information, they then carry out a consultation and then we will be able to put in a response.”
Once the Law Commission has examined all the industry responses, a report is given to government.
The government then decides whether to take on board the recommendations.