Smallholders face an uncertain future as councils look to save cash, and in Staffordshire where rents have always been high the problem now is over security of tenure.

The Staffordshire Council farming estate of 8,673 acres currently has 104 tenants, 70 per cent of whom are dairy farmers.

It was established after the end of the First World War to provide the opportunity for a farming family to make a living from agriculture, with a house, buildings and land provided, principles which still apply today.

Twenty one per cent of the tenancies are on the old lifetime or retirement tenancies but 76 per cent are under the 1995 fixed term tenancies – farm business tenancies (FBT) – the length decided by the landlord. In the case of Staffordshire County Council, suggestions are for the smaller 60 to 90 acre farms, which have been set at just six years, to be set at 10 years with a break clause allowing the landlord to end it at six years.

The larger, so-called progression farms, of more than 90 acres which have been set at 12 years are to be put on a 16 year tenancy which can be terminated by the landlord at 12 years. These longer tenancies are an improvement but banks lending money will only lend it on five out of the six years guaranteed, or 10 years in the case of the longer farm tenancies.

John Hammond of Eaton Brook Farm, Woollaston, Church Eaton, Stafford first successfully managed the tenancy of a 40 acre farm before taking on a 48-acre farm, and then, 10 years ago, he and his wife Sharon moved to his present larger farm of 160 acres.

His milk quota (now worth nothing) cost him £10,000, and he spent another £10,000 on concreting and fitting out a new cubicle shed, the structure of which was paid for by the landlords.

He has concreted yards, reseeded fields, and greatly improved the farm. He desperately needs a new parlour – milking takes three hours in his old one – but with just two years of his tenancy guaranteed it would be foolish to borrow the money to do it.

What he wants is to be guaranteed by the County Council landlords a number of years of tenure. At the beginning of FBTs the land agent could assure you that at the end of your tenancy it would be extended. That is no longer the case, and the cost to the tenants of improvements rises every year.

Councillor Robert Read, himself a farmer from Lower Penn, Wolverhampton is on a new small panel set up to consider the issue. He says security of tenure for existing farm tenants in these very difficult times for small farmers is crucial.