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Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 5:15 pm
by Kathy Millar
I am looking into ideas for affordable land here in Canada for farming and had heard that in the UK, there are "Councils" that lease land to (young? new?) farmers at an affordable price. Can anyone direct me to someone who could explain the system to me? Our local municipality (council) may own some farmable land and are interested in exploring methods to help promote agriculture.
Thanks!
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 4:12 am
by Broomcroft
Kathy
My nextdoor neighbour where I used to live in central England rented / leased about 1,000 acres from the local Council (local government organisation). I don't know much about it other than he had a long-term lease, I think it was quite cheap, and they could cease the lease if something major turned up like a development plan (presumably they would have to let him finish his year off, he was arable).
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 7:39 am
by Martin
Hi Kathy,
I think you will find that cheap is no longer available here as all councils have to get 'best value' and things are very commercial. A lease of ten or twenty years is what is normally available now as they would expect you to 'move on' as they are normally starter holdings. With bare land you would have to negotiate a rental figure that reflected the going rate for the area, based on expected profit margin. You would have to take into consideration the state of the fencing, any available water supply, buildings and other facilities avalable on the site. A great deal of land that becomes vacant now is normally put out for tender and the managing agent will decide what tender to accept, this will not always be the highest bid as a tenant that goes broke because of high overheads would do the landlord no good and the agent may even get the blame for accepting someone that was unable to do the job correctly. The term used now is 'Farm Business Tenancy' which is what I have on my land and is a fixed term that rolls over on each aniversary, this allows the landlord to take the land back on each aniversary without compensation.
Martin. Medway Valley Dexters.