Core proposals in new Bill
The Agriculture Bill underwent its second reading in the House of Lords on June 10, having passed through all stages in the House of Commons.
It is a possibility that the lockdown of MPs and civil servants mostly working from home through IT has speeded up the focus and concentrated minds to bring forward such an important bill!
The agricultural tenancy aspects account for nine of the 83 pages. The last chance for any significant changes is at the committee stage of the Lords but, in reality, this is unlikely.
The changes to the Bill have seen some of the original ideas put forward for debate by Defra remain. However some original proposals have been omitted or altered – this includes the removal of initial proposals for tenancies to be assigned or provisions for Farm Business Tenancies to be for no less than five-year terms.
What does remain are a number of the core proposals in one guise or another. There can be variations to some restrictions contained in an appropriate tenancy agreement. If a landlord objects to the requested change the tenant can apply for arbitration and seek permission to vary where this enables the tenant to gain entry to financial business assistance or meet new industry regulations.
Steven Corfield is an agricultural consultant at FBC Manby Bowdler
