Category: Policy & Business

The biggest reform of the Planning system in England since 1947 is being promised by the Government.  It released a Planning White Paper and Consultation, ‘Planning for the Future’, on the 6th August looking to free-up constraints on development in order to drive economic growth whilst, at the same time, protecting important areas and delivering ‘sustainable, beautiful, safe and useful development’.

The full consultation can be found at – https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/planning-for-the-future.  The closing date for consultation responses is 29th October.  In summary, the main proposals are as follows;

• areas will be ‘zoned’ as happens in many other countries.  Areas designated as ‘Growth’ will automatically have outline Planning Permission – this will cover substantial development sites including new towns and villages.  ‘Renewal’ areas will cover smaller-scale developments (including sites in rural areas) plus densification and infill in existing towns and cities.  The final designation will be ‘Protected Areas’ where building would be restricted – but not prohibited altogether.
• there will be national targets for housebuilding (300,000 homes per year) which would be split between Local Authorities.  They would have to allocate enough Growth or Renewal zones to meet their allocations.
• revised Local Plans will set out the zoning along with design criteria for development.  The whole Planning system would be made more transparent, certain and efficient, with statutory time limits enacted.
• there is to be a greater focus on the quality of development.  Design guidance and codes are to be prepared locally with community involvement, and developers will have to take greater account of such codes.
• there will be more focus in the system on the number of homes actually built rather than those merely given permission.
• current developer obligations under Section 106 agreements will be replaced by a reformed Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) which would be standardised across the country.

Although the plans look radical, there are questions on how effective they might be in delivering the objectives of more houses (and consequently more affordable housing costs) and thus driving economic growth.  For a start, the greatest demand for housing is around London and in South East ‘hotspots’ like Oxford and Cambridge.  The existing Green Belt looks like being designated wholesale as a Protected Area – thus limiting potential development in these areas from the outset.  Then there is the zoning process.  This seems likely to merely shift the arguments over development versus conservation away from individual projects to the initial zoning decisions.  Lastly, the idea of good quality development and especially ‘beautiful’ development is fraught with problems as what is ‘good’ in this context is largely a matter of personal taste.

For rural areas it seems likely that almost everything will be classed as ‘Protected’.  It will still be possible to secure development permission, but the White Paper envisages a system of approvals on a case-by-case basis – pretty much exactly the same as happens now.  There seems a strong presumption that the countryside should be ‘kept as it is’ with the danger that this just turns it into a living museum.  The designation as being ‘Protected’ may actually make it harder to secure development and drive growth. 

The Welsh Government has launched a consultation on future agricultural support.  Titled ‘Sustainable Farming and Our Land: Simplifying Agricultural Support’, it is asking for views on the Welsh Government’s proposals to changes to the current CAP regulations in the interim until the new Sustainable Land Management scheme is introduced.  These changes will apply to the new domestic BPS and Rural Development Programme, which will commence in the next scheme year (2021).  The Government’s proposals are intentially limited to adjusting or removing areas of the legislation considered no longer necessary in Wales.  It must be noted though, significant changes are expected when the new Sustainable Farming Schemes are introduced from 2022.  The proposals include:

• Removing the Crop Diversification rules under Greening.  The EFA requirements and Permanent Pasture retention rules will no longer be part of Greening, but they will be retained under the Cross Compliance regulations.  There will be no loss of support, as the Greening element (worth appoximately 30% of total payment) will be subsumed into the BPS.  In Wales EFA requirements only affect about 3% of claimants as the remaining automatically qualify through the permanent pasture exemption.
• Reallocating any unused National Ceiling annually to the BPS.
• Simplifying cross-border claims, so that the Welsh payment can be made in isolation of the English claim.
• Closing the Young Farmers Scheme to new entrants from 2021.  This currently tops-up payments for five years; those already in the scheme will continue to receive their remaining top-ups.
• Allowing supporting documents to be submitted up to 31st December in the relevant claim year.  The application deadline and late claim penalties will remain unchanged.
• Extending the National Reserve categories to include those who have purchased new land or committed to a lease of 5 years or more since 2015.  The 2 year usage rule will remain to ‘feed’ the National Reserve.  Those in the existing Young and New Entrants categories will have priority.
• Reducing the inspection rate to 3%.
• Simplifying the overdeclaration penalty rules by removing the current ‘yellow card’ legisltation.
• Introducing advance and balance payments, so that 70% will automatically be paid in October following basic checks and a balance payment from February once full validation checks have been completed.
• Removing the ‘Negative List’ which means operators of railways, waterworks, real estate services or sports and recreational grounds are deemed not eligible to apply for BPS under the current Active Farmer rules.  However, minimum levels of agricultural activity will be retained as current.  England and Scotland removed the Negative List a few years ago.
• Making the growing of hemp not eligible for BPS – there has been no successful claim in Wales since 2015

Under Rural Development the Welsh Government is proposing to replace the EU’s mission, objectives and priorities with a Welsh-specific definition.  However, all the EU’s current measures available to support Rural Development will be available but with some minor adjustments.

The proposals also include amendments to governanace and administrative arrangements, European networking and monitoring & evaluation and reporting.  The full consultation can be found at: https://gov.wales/sustainable-farming-and-our-land-simplifying-agricultural-support.  Responses need to be submitted by midnight on 23rd October 2020.

Natural England has published its action plan for 2020-2021.  Building Partnerships for Nature’s Recovery includes aims for the next five years.  The plan sets out this year’s steps towards its new 5 year corporate goals, includes support for a vision of a ‘thriving nature for people and plants’ and the committment to fulfil the Government’s ambitions for the natural environment in the 25 year Environment Plan.  The full plan can be found via https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/natural-england-action-plan-2020-to-2021

The National Food Strategy has produced an interim, ‘Part 1’, report providing urgent recommendations to deal with the effects of Covid-19 and the looming end of the Brexit Transition Period at the end of the year.  The Part 2 analysis of the whole food chain will be published next year and will make more sweeping recommendations on how systems should evolve to meet the future needs of society.  The review is being chaired by Henry Dimbleby, the food entreprenuer (see article of last August for details).  In terms of Part 1, the recommendations fall into two parts;

• measures to deal with the short-term effect of Covid on the availability of food to the most disadvantaged sections of society – especially poorer children.  This includes an expansion of schemes providing free school meals, school holiday food vouchers etc.
• recommendations on how food is dealt with in future trade deals.  The report states that tariffs should only be cut on products that are produced to standards equivalent to those seen in the UK.  In addition, the Government should have a statutory duty to allow Parliament to scrutinise and vote on all trade deals and should publish an independent review of every proposed deal.

For full details see – https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/

Last month the Bulletin included a (lengthy) article on the plans for future support in England and how delinking might affect Landlord / Tenant issues.  It was highlighted that delinking was still just an option.  However, it appears that Ministers remain keen on it.  Speaking during a debate on the Agriculture Bill in the House of Lords, Lord Gardiner stated that [our bold] “When delinked payments are introduced, they will replace the current basic payment scheme entirely and for all farmers.  The basic payment scheme and delinked payments cannot and will not coexist. … we may wish to move away from the current approach of making a single payment per year and issue payments more frequently instead”.  It seems clear that breaking the link with land is still a clear goal of Defra – being ‘when’ rather than ‘if’.

The Trade and Agriculture Commission that is to advise the Government on food issues within trade deals is expected to report ‘within weeks’.  The Chairman of the Commission, Tim Smith, has stated that an interim report will be published in September, with the final report being produced in the New Year.

Legislation is currently passing through the Scottish Parliament to set the rules for farm support for the next few years.  Unlike the ‘Agriculture Bill’ in England, the Scottish equivalent goes by the rather less snappy title of the ‘Agriculture (Retained EU Law and Data) (Scotland) Bill’.  Also in contrast to the English legislation, the Scottish legislation is specifically designed to make little change to the current EU support schemes.  This is in line with the Stability and Simplicity consultation back in 2018 which foresees no major change to the BPS (and only tweaks to LFASS) before 2024.

The Scottish legislation has passed through Stage 2 – the Committee Stage.  It now only has to progress through Stage 3 to become law.  One important amendment was made at Stage 2.  This is effectively a ‘sunset clause’ that means a replacement for the current legislation has to be put forward before the end of the next Scottish Parliament in May 2026.  The Government could put forward plans before this date, but it means that the current schemes cannot carry-on indefinitely.  Also contained within the Bill are powers for the Scottish Government to set rules on standards for agricultural products.  As set out in other articles, this potentially sets up clashes with the UK Government attempting to set its own rules on the UK Single Market. 

As well as wanting the minimum change in agricultural support for political reasons (not upsetting farming voters ahead of next May’s elections) there is a more fundamental reason for Scotland’s ‘no change’ agenda.  The present administration obviously has a long-term goal for independence and for Scotland to rejoin the EU.  Keeping Scottish rules aligned with Europe would make this process easier.  This is not just the case in terms of farm support.  The same logic will apply to food standards which will be problematic if the Westminster Government moves away from EU regulations.  It even applies to environmental standards – potentially setting up conflict over pesticides authorisations and even GM.  

Defra has confirmed the Greening requirents under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) will no longer be a requirement in England from 2021.  This will mean for 2021 BPS applications, Crop Diversification (two and three crop rule) and Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) will no longer be a requirement in England.  There has been no announcement yet from Wales and Scotland, but these administrations will be under pressure to follow suit.  The removal of these rules are part of the Government’s plans to simplify the BPS during the English Agricultural Transition Period.  Originally Crop Diversification and EFAs were introduced to deliver environmental outcomes, but it has been found in practice they have delivered very little.

There will be no change to the overall payment as the ‘Greening’ element of the payment will be added to the main BPS payment.  For many, the simplification probably won’t make too much difference to ‘in field’ operations as most would have three crops in their rotation and, recently, many have been meeting the EFA requirement via hedgerows and margins.  However, at the least, it should make the BPS ‘form filling’ simpler.

In the Budget 2020 the Government announced it would conduct a ‘fundamental’ review of the business rates system in England.  As part of this it is has now launched a ‘Call for Evidence’ and is seeking views on a number of questions from businesses and business representative organisations, local authorities, ratings agents, others involved in the operations of the system and anyone else interested in the business rates or the wider tax system.  Repsonses to the ‘reliefs’ and ‘multiplier’ section need to be made by 18th September, with views on the other sections by 31st October.  Preliminary conclusions on the the more urgent questions will be made in the autumn, with final conclusions expected in spring 2021.  Further information can be found via https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/903429/Business_Rates_Review_-_CfE.pdf