Ombudsman ruling deals a blow to council farm tenants
© FLPA / David Burton/REX/Shutterstock Tenant farmers fighting against Herefordshire County Council’s farm estate sell-off have had their hopes dashed that an investigation by the local government ombudsman (LGO) would support their case to get their notices to quit revoked.
The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) had complained to the LGO that the council was guilty of maladministration for serving eviction notices on about 15 of its farm tenants after it previously indicated the decision to sell its farms estate would not result in tenants losing their homes.
See also: Council farm tenants continue battle against estate sell-off
In a report, published on 10 November, the LGO said while some “potentially misleading” comments were made during a public meeting on 3 December 2015, where it was agreed the estate would be sold off, those comments had not influenced the decision of council cabinet members to sell the farms.
“The council followed the correct process in reaching a cabinet decision to sell its portfolio of farms and smallholdings,” it said.
“Despite some potentially misleading comments made during the public meeting to make that decision, there was no fault in the council’s decision to give notice to some farmers to terminate their tenancies prior to the sale.”
But George Dunn, TFA chief executive, said the council should still rescind the notices to quit as the leader of the council had made unambiguous statements that the affected farmers would not lose their homes or livelihoods as their tenancies would be transferred to a new owner.
“The comments did not come from an inexperienced or junior member of the council – they came from the council leader, who is an experienced and long-standing politician well versed with council procedure and public speaking,” said Mr Dunn.
“The leader must stand by the statements he made in an open meeting of the council’s cabinet. The maladministration was not in what he said but in the actions subsequently taken which were contrary to those statements.”
Misconstrued comments
The LGO report said during the meeting on 3 December 2015, the council leader stated a rumour that some people would be turned out of their homes was “not accurate”.
Later in the meeting he said: “It was not the case that tenants were to lose their livelihood or suffer in some way as they were protected through new ownership.”
But when interviewed by the ombudsman, the council leader claimed his comments were primarily directed at tenants who had long-term tenancies, rather than those tenants with a short-term farm business tenancy (FBT).
He accepted some of his comments could have been misconstrued by some people present, but said he also believed tenants should have been aware that the sale of the farms was possible.
The ombudsman said they were “of the view that some comments made in that meeting by the leader were likely to give FBTs the mistaken impression that none of the farmers would have to leave his or her farm”.
But while these comments did appear to have unintentionally misled some of the farmers present, it did not mean there was maladministration in what he said.
The main issue from this was whether his remarks may have persuaded cabinet members present at the meeting to vote in favour of selling the farms when they had previously not intended to vote that way, said the ombudsman.
However, at interview, all six of the members said they were not influenced in their decisions by the comments.