Knight Frank launches Rural Report 2018
As the world changes, so does Knight Frank. Our reinvigorated Rural Asset Management team has a renewed focus and new leadership. Its ambition is clear:to serve our clients with exemplary advice that will help their businesses adapt and grow as the rural economy inevitably restructures as we leave the embrace of Brussels.
2 minutes to read
The direction of travel from the UK Government is clear. Both the 25-year Environment Plan with the Prime Minister’s approval, and more recently Defra’s command paper on its proposals for the future of agriculture are required reading.
The clue, as so often, is found in the title. Health and Harmony: the future for food, farming and the environment in a Green Brexit says it all.
For those directly engaged in agriculture there will be an inevitable shift as we leave the EU to public money being paid to individual recipients primarily for the provision of public goods.
Business plans from the early 2020s can no longer rely on the Basic Payment paid on an acreage basis. Provision of environmental goods will become a commodity.
In this edition of The Rural Report we focus on the opportunities and challenges that all of this presents to rural landowners, with contributions from some of the sector’s brightest and sometimes most controversial minds, including exclusive interviews with outspoken environmentalist Ben Goldsmith and the architect of green Brexit himself, Defra Secretary of State Michael Gove.
Above: Ross Murray and Clive Hopkins
Agree or disagree with them, but it is their views that are increasingly shaping agricultural policy. What is clear is that change to the UK’s rural landscape is already happening.
This will bring the need for insight and for good advice, to allow restructuring of farming businesses and to seize the inevitable investment and management opportunities that will present themselves.
Beyond England, landowners in both Wales and Scotland are eager to see how devolution changes their own arrangements. Above all this discussion on support, lies the unknown outcome of trade negotiations that could have far greater sectoral impacts.
We must also look beyond our own borders, not just for the potential trading opportunities provided by consumers in the rest of the world who increasingly value Great British food, but also at the potential agricultural investments around the world.
Knight Frank is involved with the sale of an Australian farm the size of a small country and the appetite of investors to acquire such a unique asset has been strong.
An exciting journey lies ahead for all of us. Hopefully the articles in this edition of The Rural Report will help to make yours easier and more productive. Please do get in touch if we can help further in any way.
Ross Murray - Chairman of Rural Asset Management
Clive Hopkins - Head of Farms and Estates