The Rural Bulletin: 1st March 2018

Former CLA President Ross Murray joins the Knight Frank team

Knight Frank has appointed former CLA President Ross Murray as Chairman of its Rural Asset Management division. Having worked in the sector for over 25 years, Mr Murray brings a wealth of rural land management experience as well as high-level political insight into the issues affecting landowners.

“Over the next few years, landowners will face a fast-changing landscape and will need to make some crucial, strategic decisions,” says Andrew Hay, Global Head of Residential at Knight Frank. “We believe that having Ross on-board will be of significant value to our clients, as he can provide unparalleled practical and informed advice."

"Formed of some of the UK’s top consultants and valuers, Knight Frank’s rural division is excellently positioned to provide wide-ranging consultancy support, a service that is increasingly needed by landowners in the run-up to Brexit", adds Murray. 

Defra launches future farming policy consultation

Farming organisations are disappointed with the lack of clarity and detail in Defra’s consultation on future farming policy. The document makes clear ambitions to cap farm support payments and divert the money into environmental schemes, but spells out little more than previously revealed. 

“There is much in a name: ‘Health and Harmony: the future for food, farming and the environment in a Green Brexit’,” says Ross Murray, Knight Frank’s new Chairman of Rural Asset Management.

“Farmers and landowners will have seen the government’s announcement, made this week on Tuesday, coming a mile off. It was well trailed by Michael Gove in his July speech at the WWF, to the CLA 2017 Conference in November, and at the Oxford Farming Conference in January.

“Anyone hoping for clarity and detail with which to make long term business decisions, will have to rely on their own interpretations and expert advice in the meantime.

"This policy document signals a clear direction of travel whilst short on detail. With the Government still unclear where the negotiation with Europe takes us on future trading relationships, No 10 will have deemed it too soon to say anything of great substance on the future of farming.

“There is however a clear signal about the philosophy of payments for public goods and the allied point on capping of direct payments during transition. Those clients who farm directly will note the various thresholds being suggested. Without being definite, anything much over an annual receipt of £100,000 is potentially vulnerable to capping.

“This is the start of a long year that will shape the future of farming in the UK when outside the EU. Both farmers and landlords will need to be alert to the potential for inevitable change and volatility. Restructuring of UK agriculture, with all its opportunities and downsides, will inevitably follow. Don’t expect clarity within 12 months meanwhile.”

Read and respond to the consultation  or contact Knight Frank Rural Asset Management to help plan and prepare for what are challenging times for the UK farming sector. 

Neonicotinoids under further discussion

Neonicotinoids do put bees at risk, according to a review of more than 1,500 studies on neonicotinoids by the European Food Safety Authority. The report is likely to feed into EU discussions about extending the current ban on neonics to cover non-flowering crops like barley, wheat and sugar beet. 

Farming organisations say a total ban would leave growers facing lower yields and higher costs. “There are a number of factors impacting bee population, of which neonicotinoids are only one,” Graeme Taylor of the European Crop Protection Association was quoted as saying in Farmers Weekly. “With the right measures, any risk posed to bees can be successfully managed.”

Scots present united vision for food and drink

Organisations representing Scottish food producers and processors have launched a joint industry vision on what the Scottish Government’s upcoming Good Food Nation Bill must deliver.

Encompassing the three broad themes of ‘Educate, Sustain, Promote’, the document sets out various measures which the industry wants to see in future food legislation – covering policy areas like education, health, agricultural regulation and public procurement.