Cornish tenants win rent rebate

17 September 1999

Cornish tenants win rent rebate

By FWi staff

CORNISH tenant farmers are to be given a rent rebate and flexible payment terms to help them cope with the crisis in agriculture.

Cornwall County Councils Farm and Agricultural Committee voted to give its 137 tenant farmers a 10% rebate for the six months to the end of September.

Committee chairman Pam Lyne said tenants would also be allowed to pay their rents in four instalments in future.

She hoped the concerns expressed by her committee would influence the policies of other landowners in Cornwall.

County Land Agent Brian Reeve Fowkes told councillors there was a “tremendous amount” of concern among tenants over the pressures now facing the farming industry.

The cost of implementing the rebate is expected to be about £42,000, which will be met from the committees reserves.

County Council chairman Jim Philp, who farms near Looe, said: “I hope our example will be followed by others.

“Things are desperate for members of the farming community and anything that can be done should be done.”