Rock Review sets out improved support for tenant farmers

More opportunities for tenants to join Defra’s Environmental Land Management scheme (ELM) and to benefit from farm productivity grants are among the key recommendations from the Tenancy Working Group, set up to help government formulate better post-Brexit support policies.

The group launched in February of this year, and was chaired by Conservative peer Baroness Rock, supported by eight industry experts, to provide independent advice to Defra.

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With more than 60% of farmland in England covered by some form of tenancy arrangement, its remit was primarily to ensure that tenants can participate in and benefit from emerging “public money for public goods” schemes.

But it went further, with the experts asked to consider how to foster positive, long-term relationships between tenants and landlords, and to seek ways to minimise any loss of land from the tenanted sector.

Recommendations

The group has now published its findings in a 128-page review, containing 70 detailed recommendations and 18 “headline” recommendations.

Top of the list is the demand that “tenants should not need landlord consent to enter tenanted land into (ELM and productivity) schemes, and landlords should not be allowed to enter tenanted land into schemes unilaterally”.

This should apply when the length of the scheme commitment is no longer than the length of the tenancy remaining, it says.

And where there is a permanent land use change involved – such as tree planting or rewilding – landlords should enter such schemes “only with the consent of the tenant.”

Other immediate and longer-term recommendations include:

• Tenants with AHA agreements should be allowed to enter multi-annual schemes
• Defra should allow joint applications for productivity schemes, fixed equipment grants and woodland schemes
• The Treasury should provide specific incentives to improve the infrastructure on tenanted holdings
• Defra should incentivise landlords to offer tenancies to new entrants
• Legislative changes are needed to help tenants diversify
• A consultation on tenancy reform should take place in 2023, to improve the functionality of farm business tenancies
• Tax changes should encourage landlords to let more land for longer
• Defra should appoint a tenant farmer commissioner to ensure future policies are “tenant proofed”

Vision

Commenting on the full report, Baroness Rock said: “This review provides a clear vision for the agricultural tenanted sector in England that Defra can and should adopt.

“The recommendations, when taken together, actively move the sector towards a position where tenant farmers operate resilient, successful, and thriving businesses.”

While some recommendations warranted immediate delivery by Defra, such as helping tenant farmers access new support, others were more structural, “putting the tenanted sector on a more resilient footing as we move through the agricultural transition”.

The government will publish a formal response in due course, though Defra secretary Ranil Jayawardena said the review set out the importance of having a thriving tenanted sector to deliver growth in the rural economy and help farmers improve the environment.

“As we look at how we best deliver our environmental schemes, we will make sure that the needs of tenant farmers remain central to our plans,” he said.