Tenant farmers to get legal rights to access Welsh agri-scheme

Farm tenants in Wales are to be given legal powers to challenge landlords who block them from accessing new government agriculture support schemes.

The new Agriculture (Wales) Bill, which was published in draft form on Monday 26 September, includes a proposal to make an important amendment to the 1986 Agricultural Holdings Act (AHA).

This is significant because it would give tenants the right to object to their landlord’s unreasonable refusal to allow them access to the new Sustainable Farming Scheme in Wales. 

See also: New Welsh farm support scheme majors on tree planting

But this change won’t apply to farm business tenancies.

There are currently no general provisions in the 1986 AHA that allow a tenant to use dispute resolution to contest a restrictive clause in their lease.

The government is concerned that historic clauses written several years ago now constrain tenants from developing a “productive and viable” business.

By amending current legislation, it hopes to incentivise landlords and tenants to negotiate an agreement before they need to resort to paying for dispute resolution.

But for those tenants who can’t achieve a “reasonable agreement” with their landlord, the bill provides a new “legislative backstop”.

Snares and glue traps ban

The new agriculture bill – a first for Wales – also seeks to make Wales the first UK country to completely ban the use of snares and glue traps for catching wildlife.

Legislation banning glue traps has recently passed in England, but they can still be used by professional pest controllers.

Wales plans to go a step further, banning these completely, and snares too, from September 2023.

Rural affairs minister Lesley Griffiths describes an outright ban as “the only way forward”.

“These devices catch animals indiscriminately, causing a great deal of suffering, and they are not compatible with the high animal welfare standards we strive for here in Wales,” she said.

The bill, a 48-page document, establishes a policy and legislative framework of sustainable land management as the future agricultural policy in Wales.

Bespoke policy

NFU Cymru president Aled Jones described it as the most important piece of legislation in Wales since the Westminster 1947 Agriculture Act.

“For the first time in our history, this bill will give Wales the opportunity to implement its own food and farming policy, made in Wales for the people of Wales,” said Mr Jones.

But Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) Cymru suggested it lacked ambition for the agricultural tenanted sector in Wales.

“Among other things, two fundamental areas that do need to be thought about are the definition of agriculture as it applies to agricultural tenancies, and what is known as the rules of good husbandry,” said TFA chief executive George Dunn.

Both definitions were drafted in the wake of the Second World War, he pointed out. “Applied strictly, they limit the extent to which farm tenants can use the holdings they farm for environmental purposes such as planting trees, managing for carbon or creating areas to improve biodiversity.”