Agenda item
LONG TERM STRATEGY FOR THE AGRICULTURAL ESTATE
To consider a report by the Valuation and Estates Manager (copy attached) which seeks the Committee to examine and provide observations on the proposed future strategy for the Council’s Agricultural Estate prior to its submission to Cabinet for approval.
10.10 a.m. – 10.45 a.m.
Minutes:
A copy of a report by the Valuation and Estates Manager
(VEM), which provided information on
the proposed strategy for the Agricultural Estate (AE) from 2015 onwards, had
been circulated with the papers for the meeting.
The Lead Member for
Finance and Assets introduced the report and draft long term strategy for
County's Agricultural Estate. He advised
that the Agricultural Estate Working Group, on which each Member Area Group
(MAG) was represented, had drawn up a future strategy for the estate which
would remove onerous maintenance and management liabilities and ensure greater
efficiency of Council resources whilst mitigating the impact of cuts in
corporate areas. He explained that, if
the strategy was approved and adopted, there would be a managed disposal of
agricultural holdings, with sitting tenants being given the first option to
purchase their entire holding or part of it (where appropriate). If they opted initially to buy part of it,
the remainder of it would be rented to them for a set period of time under a
short-term tenancy agreement on the understanding that they would be expected
to buy the remainder of the land at the end of the short-term tenancy, or
otherwise relinquish it. Any holdings or
land relinquished would be sold on the open market to realise a capital receipt. All disposals would be as agricultural
holdings, with appropriate covenants and overage agreements being applied to
the sales.
In response to Members' questions officers confirmed that overage
agreements could legally be applied to the sale of agricultural holdings and
land for specific periods of time. Any
holdings which became vacant would be disposed of on the open market under
powers delegated to officers/Lead Member/Cabinet dependent upon the estimated
value of the holding. The Lead Member
for Finance and Assets referred to discussions underway with a local college
with respect to facilitating a process to enable interested new entrants to the
industry to gain experience of a practical nature through assistance provided
by the Council. These discussions were
currently at the negotiation stage, no agreement had yet been reached. The Lead Member for Education suggested that
it would be worthwhile to approach other organisations where new entrants into
the industry were given an opportunity to run a farm for a year to gain
valuable practical and managerial experience.
In response to members' questions the Lead Member and officers confirmed
that:
· covenant and overage agreements could be
applied for a specific period of time;
· for 'market rents' to be charged the
dwellings, farm buildings, boundaries and land etc. had to be in 'market
condition';
· the majority of the Council owned holdings
were outside any designated LDP sites and therefore could not benefit from LDP
land value;
· a lot of the recent investment on the Estate had been financed
either via Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) grant funding or by the tenants
themselves;
· the last new fresh re- letting on the
estate took place approximately 10 years ago;
· private estates could benefit from tax
advantages for re-investment, these were not available to public estates;
· the Council had written to tenants
outlining the contents of the proposed strategy and to date 13 tenants had
expressed an interest in purchasing their holdings or part of their holdings;
· it was anticipated that the Strategy would
be a long-term one due to the terms of current tenancies, some tenancies were
due to expire next year, but it would probably take another 10 to 15 years to
deliver the entire strategy as some tenants had longer term tenancies;
· the length of tenancies could not be
renegotiated without valid legal reasons;
· all undertakings made under the 2010
Agricultural Estate Strategy would be honoured
Councillor Eryl Williams referred to a Council
owned holding which had been bequeathed to the Council under a covenant
that it be let to a new entrant into the farming industry. The local Community Council had long held
concerns that the County Council would attempt to dispose of this holding as
part of a future strategy. He requested
that it be placed on record that if the County Council decided to dispose of
this holding the Community Council had indicated that it would instigate a
legal challenge to that decision on the basis of the covenant in the original
bequest.
Following an in-depth discussion the Committee by a majority vote:
Resolved - to recommend to
Cabinet that:-
(a) that it approves and
adopts the future strategy for the Agricultural Estate; and
(b) the Committee noted that covenants(s) relating
to the above mentioned holding, and any other Estate holdings would be researched and clarified prior to
the disposal of the holding(s).
Supporting documents:
- Ag Estate Report 260215, item 6. PDF 57 KB
- Ag Estate Report - App 1 260215, item 6. PDF 145 KB
- Ag Estate Report - Appendix 2 26 Feb 2015, item 6. PDF 79 KB
- Ag Estate Report - Appendix 3 26 Feb 2015, item 6. PDF 117 KB