Tenant farmers warned to be wary of signing up to government schemes
Tenant farmers are being urged to scrutinise any new tenancy agreements they are asked to sign as changes to clauses could restrict them from accessing potential income earning schemes in the future.
The advice comes from Shropshire land agent Philip Meade of Davis Meade Property Consultants who is concerned about some of the clauses being used in the development of standard ‘template’ Farm Business Tenancies.
He says these insist on the tenant obtaining and maintaining maximum rights and entitlements under any new Government schemes.
“If tenants sign these sorts of agreements they risk jeopardising their opportunity to get involved in private sector biodiversity, nitrate and carbon markets,” Philip Meade said.
“Davis Meade Property Consultants is part of a consortium that is working on some ground- breaking proposals for farming involving private sector funding which could be far more lucrative and flexible than some of the proposed Government schemes.
“It would be a lost opportunity, for both landlords and tenants, to see tenancies restricted to government schemes only, thus precluding prospects for working with the private sector."
He has been liaising with the Tenant Farmers Association on this issue.
Its chief executive, George Dunn, said: “We recognise the opportunity to develop new schemes targeting the environment and new markets for positive carbon and biodiversity management, however, we cannot support a situation where the funding is removed from tenant farmers and is received instead by their landlords.
“Landlords are entitled to receive rent in return for granting exclusive occupation of their land to active farmers, they should not be able to capitalise directly through Government schemes and other arrangements"
