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FARMERS NEED TO GET THEIR AFFAIRS IN ORDER
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Farmers are being urged to ensure they have up-to-date succession plans in place following the launch of the Agricultural Transition Plan following the UK’s departure from the EU. Tom Chiffers, from national law firm Clarke Willmott LLP, said that in “a period of great change”, farmers needed to be ready to deal with the consequences in order to avoid future costly disputes over succession. The government’s Agricultural Transition Plan (ATP) outlines a timescale to change the way farming is funded, managed and incentivised, which will have a significant impact on the income of farms and the industry. Tom, a partner in Clarke Willmott’s Private Capital team, referred to the phasing out of Basic Payments, pointing out: “All direct payments will be reduced progressively, but with bigger reductions on the higher payment bands”. “Direct payments will be replaced by a new universally accessible Environmental Land Management scheme that will reward farmers, growers and land managers for delivering public goods, with an anticipated 50 to 60% drop in funding in real terms by 2030.
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TACKLING UNAUTHORISED
ENCAMPMENTS
The Government has said it will strengthen police powers and create a new criminal offence to tackle unauthorised encampments. This new offence will specifically target trespassers who cause disruption to local communities and use vehicles to reside on land. Police will be given the powers to seize vehicles and arrest offenders. Mark Bridgeman, President of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), said: “For years, farmers and landowners have been severely affected by the damage that can be caused by unauthorised encampments. “From their businesses being disrupted and their families being threatened, getting the situation resolved is a stressful and time-consuming process and costs thousands of pounds in legal fees and clear-up costs. The new powers, which the CLA has strongly supported, will be welcome by rural communities. “Police will now have more powers to deal with unauthorised encampments, so it’s vitally important they use this authority to tackle incidents head-on and take the pressure off landowners.” The criminal offence, due to be introduced as part of a major new criminal justice bill, will apply in cases where: • A person is aged 18 or over and using vehicles to reside on the land (ensuring occasional campers are not affected) • The trespassers are residing or intending to reside on land without the consent of the occupier (ensuring unintentional instances of trespass are not affected, such as ramblers or hikers) • They have caused or are likely to cause significant damage, disruption or distress • They fail to respond to a request from the occupier or police to leave the land and remove their property or they return to the land within 12 months of that request with an intention to reside with a vehicle.
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Contact us today Canterbury 01227 643250 Maidstone 01622 698000 Tenterden 01580 765722 enquiries@whitehead-monckton.co.uk www.whitehead-monckton.co.uk Whitehead Monckton Limited (no. 08366029), registered in England & Wales. Registered office 5 Eclipse Park, Sittingbourne Road, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 3EN Authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under no. 608279.
“While there is still much uncertainty and lack of clarity as to what the new payment schemes will look like, that there is an expectation there will be a significant drop in funding for all farmers at the end of the transition plan in 2027. “In addition to the ATP, the Government has been applying greater scrutiny to both inheritance tax and capital gains tax, and there are concerns that the generous inheritance tax reliefs currently available to farmers in the form of Business Property Relief and Agricultural Property Relief could be cut or even abolished at some point in the future. “All of this means that farmers need to be in a state of financial and legal preparedness, with a robust succession plan in place which should include the right kind of will.” Clarke Willmott has developed a free, online ‘Which Will?’ tool that prompts the user to think about what is important to them when making a will and recommends which will best meets their needs.
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APRIL 2021 | WWW.SOUTHEASTFARMER.NET
