Landscope 11 February 2015

11/02/2015

Headlines

10 February 2015

CAP reform: UK demands review of greening and inspection rules Six countries, including the UK, have demanded a full review of the crop diversification and permanent grassland elements of the new greening requirements that farmers have to meet to receive the Basic Payment.

They have also questioned the environmental benefits of the rules and want more proportionate controls for cross compliance. SG comment: the reform has not simplified the rules or how they are monitored on farms, and so has failed to achieve one of the reform’s basic aims. Greening requirements will have little or no environmental benefit, are over complicated and are a wasted opportunity for positive reform.

Farming Dairying: DairyCo free advice for farmers with cashflow challenges DairyCo is offering free consultant support to levy-paying dairy businesses that are at risk of severe cashflow difficulties due to the drop in milk prices and delay in First Milk paying its suppliers. See the DairyCo website.

The fall in the price of milk paid to farmers is blamed on a number of factors: the effect of Russian sanctions and falling demand from Asia; the supermarket price war, although this is denied by the supermarkets. The House of Common’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has also published a report on the sector, calling for Government action to encourage the spread of Producer Organisations and a review of the EU intervention price for milk. It also says that the Groceries Code Adjudicator should also have the power to launch investigations instead of only responding to complaints.

Volatility is expected to become more prominent in the UK dairy industry as the link between the UK and global wholesale prices gets stronger. This means having a cost effective and efficient supply chain will be more crucial going forward than in previous years. For UK farmers, it might be worth looking at New Zealand farmgate prices to see just how volatile they can be. New Zealand farmgate prices fell from an average of 33ppl in early 2014 to sub 20ppl in October.

EU Farm Commissioner Hogan to tackle unfair imbalances of power in food supply chain Phil Hogan has said that fertiliser and other input costs must fall in line with overall energy prices. He pointed in particular to a planned 7% rise in Irish fertiliser prices this year despite a sharp fall in overall energy prices, pledging to raise the issue with the European Commission.

Research on the history of droughts The UK Irrigation Association, with a group of leading universities, is investigating the impact of droughts on businesses and the environment in order to better inform how drought risk management, impacts, and uncertainties can be improved in the future. The short online survey takes 10 minutes.

Property Issues Communities and Local Government Committee publishes report on community rights The House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee has found that the community rights introduced by the Localism Act 2011, including the right to challenge, to bid, to build and to reclaim land, have had mixed results in their first two years. A small number of community groups have used the Community Right to Bid to stop valued local assets such as the local pub being sold for redevelopment, but limitations have also been exposed. Among others, the Committee recommends that the Government: • increases the time people have to bid to buy a local asset from 6 to 9 months; • makes it easier to remove or restrict the "permitted development" exemption from planning control when an asset has been listed as having Community Value; • focuses its support for community-led housing on building local people's skills to manage projects; • reforms the Community Right to Challenge.

Plain English planning guide The government has published the guide on the planning system in a bid to get more communities involved in the planning process.

Growth Deal receives more money Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) have been given an additional £1 billion, through so-called Growth Deals, to invest in local economies across England.

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Commercial property: 19.1% total return as the office and industrial sectors revive in 2014 UK industrial property made a total return of 24.4% in 2014, mainly due to large increases in capital values, and offices made a 24.3% total return. The retail sector, which is thriving in some locations but struggling in many, returned 14.1%. The returns compare with 0.5% return on equities in 2014, 24.3% on property equities and 11.8% on bonds.

Post Offices not in decline – just not where you would expect them The Post Office has denied claims by unions that they are closing locations by stealth by not reopening those that have closed temporarily. They also point to new locations – including churches, pubs, cowsheds and even a monastery on an island off the Pembrokeshire coast and a barber’s in Hampshire.

Commons library notes on planning and property The House of Commons Library has published notes on several property and planning issues, which outline the current Government position: Planning; Planning for Housing (England only); Neighbourhood planning (following the Localism Act 2011); Garden Cities; Planning Reform Proposals; Planning for onshore wind farms; Property and land; Rent setting for social housing tenancies (England); Land: registration of manorial rights.

Environmental regulatory fines and individual wealth The recent case of Natural England v Philip Edward Day in the Court of Appeal Criminal Division reaffirmed that high penalties (in this case £450,000 for cutting down several trees in a SSSI) can be imposed to punish people for what had been done for commercial gain, and to deter others and protect the public. Courts are now likely to require wealthy defendants and firms to produce five years’ business accounts to determine fines.

Scottish Government calls moratorium on 'fracking' The Scottish Government has requested that the UK government does not issue further licences in Scotland as the powers over licensing are due to be devolved, following the Smith Commission recommendations.

Residential New higher Council Tax rates could raise triple amount from Mansion Tax Creating three new council tax bands above H could increase the total raised by Council Tax by £4.7bn to £25.6bn by 2019-20, according to the Centre for Business Research, treble the amount of Labour’s proposed Mansion Tax. A report by FairHomeTax claims that Labour's Mansion Tax on the top 0.2% of houses would cost tens of millions to administer and would be difficult to enforce.

Straw houses come to market The two-and three-bedroom houses are currently being built in Bristol, and will be sold at a price of £220,000 240,000. They look like houses built using typical construction techniques as they are brick clad; the bales of straw replace breeze blocks as the inner skin. Heating costs will be less than 10% of a traditionally built house.

House building: Report urges use of green-belt land for homes Green belt areas around cities should lose their protected status, freeing up land for the building of some two million homes, according to the Adam Smith Institute.

House building: new housing zones to boost house building on brownfield sites 10 sites will be selected from a shortlist of 29 to be new housing zones. Up to 2,000 homes per site will be built although larger schemes are being considered. All the schemes will be a mix of social and market housing, will be on brownfield sites and they will share a £200 million pot to help with infrastructure. The shortlisted councils are: Thurrock, Hertsmere, Guildford, Babergh and Mid-Suffolk, West Lindsey, Dudley, Sandwell, Stoke, Derby, Gedling, Bassetlaw, Wakefield, North East Lincolnshire, York, Barnsley, Gateshead, Sheffield, Preston, Blackburn with Darwen, Wirral, Bristol, East Hampshire, North Somerset, Tewkesbury, Sedgemoor, Poole, Bath and North Somerset, and Gloucester.

Housing building: rural affordable housing: new 10 house rule seriously threatens affordable rural housing England's ten National Parks have sent a letter to the Government saying that the new threshold of ten units, below which local planning authorities are not able to require a proportion of new housing to be affordable, seriously threatens their ability to facilitate affordable housing in National Parks for local needs. National Parks will be able to reduce the threshold to five units.

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Residential management: Competition and Markets Authority proposes changes The CMA, which is a non-ministerial government department which aims to make markets work well for consumers, businesses and the economy, says that while the market works well for many leaseholders in England and Wales, some have experienced significant problems, including understanding of leasehold law by landlords and potential purchasers of let houses, landlords’ obligations, service charges and dispute resolution.

However, it does not recommend that property managers should be subject to more formal regulation by government.

Energy efficiency in let houses: regulations published The Government has published more details on how it proposes to apply the policy of all residential properties having an energy efficiency rating of E or better before being let. The regulations will only apply to properties let on an assured shorthold tenancy or regulated tenancy, and are not likely to apply to agricultural lettings or listed buildings where compliance could unacceptably alter their character or appearance. There is likely to be a financial test so that properties can still be let where the cost of complying with the regulations exceeds the expected energy savings.

Scottish Government’s Help to Buy (Scotland) Small Developers scheme launched The £30 million scheme aims to encourage more home ownership by allowing the Scottish Government to take an 10-20% equity stake in the property, which can be repaid at any time. This extends the original £100m schemes, which supported 4,100 sales. The scheme is ringfenced to support smaller housebuilders.

And finally…

Hoovered!

A South Korean woman had to call firefighters for help after her robot vacuum cleaner ate her hair as she was taking a nap on the floor. She was eventually separated from the robot's clutches by paramedics.

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this briefing, its information may not be comprehensive and recipients should not act upon it without seeking full professional advice.

If you have queries regarding any of the articles, please contact jason.beedell@smithsgore.co.uk (01733 866562) or andrew.teanby@smithsgore.co.uk (01522 507310)

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