Report urges building on farms
10 December 1999
Report urges building on farms
By FWi staff
RULES banning building development on prime farmland should be removed to encourage economic development, a new report has recommended.
The report, prepared for the Cabinet Office, recommends the special status of a significant proportion of agricultural land should be removed.
Farmers wanting to develop land are currently prevented from doing so even if the change would produce economic, social and environmental benefits, it argues.
“Given the potential gain for the countryside and rural communities, the government might consider future evaluation of this issue,” the report concludes.
The report claims that rural policy has it roots in the 1940s and needs updating to cope with the demands of the new millennium.
“Social and economic trends have combined to produce a fundamental change in views of what the countryside is for and in values for priorities for public policy.”
The report marks an apparent turnabout since last summer when deputy prime minister John Prescott was said to be considering plans to curb rural development.
It confirms a front-page story in The Times two months ago which said ministers were investigating proposals to turn farmers into “rural entrepreneurs”.
Farmers will be encourage to adapt and diversify their businesses to generate what it terms “sustainable commercial advantage”, the report says.
This could be done through a package of measures to promote enterprise and switching support to farmers to invest in schemes which enhance the environment.
Producers should also be encouraged to focus on new and emerging markets, such as organic food, the document recommends.
The report marks a continuation of the drive to reform farming. It comes days after agriculture minister Nick Brown announced radical reforms to farm subsidies.
Environment Minister Michael Meacher, who is responsible for rural issues, indicated that the government had already embraced many of the reports ideas.
“Nick Brown announced an important step when he set out the governments New Direction for Agriculture on Tuesday,” he said.
“Our further thinking, taking account of the debate engendered by this report, will be brought together in the forthcoming Rural White Paper.”
- Subsidy reform – reaction and analysis, FWi, 09 December, 1999
- Secret report to shake up agriculture, FWi, 20 October, 1999
- PLan to curb countryside building, FWi, 21 June, 1999