Agriculture Bill brings tenancy reform
Significant changes to agricultural tenancies are included in the government’s 2020 Agriculture Bill which should help improve productivity and assist succession.
Schedule 3 of the Agriculture Bill proposes several amendments to the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 including a provision to vary or override some restrictive clauses within agricultural tenancies which are problematic, especially with the anticipated changes revolving around environmentally-based income.
It proposes allowing tenants the right to apply through arbitration or third-party determination to resolve a dispute. Arbitrators in the future can be appointed not just from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, as now, but also from the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers and also the Agricultural Law Association.
On succession, the new bill gives authority to develop an improved suitability test relating to the applicant’s capacity to farm the holding commercially to a high production standard, and care for the environment.
The bill proposes amending the minimum age, currently 65, at which applications to the tribunal for succession on retirement can be made, so that such applications can be made at any age.
Rent reviews will see demands for arbitration in the rent review process replaced by a notice of determination, which may be followed by arbitration or third-party determination.
Eifion Bibby of Davis Meade Property Consultants
