My Lords, I am very pleased to attach my name to Amendment 158, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Whitty. The tenant farming sector is hugely important in the United Kingdom. Some 30% of all agricultural land is tenanted. I have long been concerned about the future of the county farms estate. As the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, said, many have been disposed of, including in my own county of Northumberland. Indeed, in conjunction with the Tenant Farmers Association, I wrote a report in, I think, 2007 on this topic.
Many of the farms that remain under the ownership of local authorities are no longer smallholdings. Of course, it is important that farms of different sizes are available to let to tenants. I speak as someone who started farming in 1971 as a tenant on a relatively small mixed farm in Northumberland. We had then what we called a farming ladder: it was possible to start small and, through hard work and sound business skills, gradually move on to larger farms. The model worked really well and provided an entry into farming for those from outside established farming businesses. New blood is crucial for any industry sector, and certainly for farming. Many of today’s successful farming families started small and have built impressive rural businesses as a consequence.
County farms are clearly owned by local authorities, but, as I said in the aforementioned report, they are a national asset and should be retained. Too often, local authorities have taken short-term decisions to dispose of their landholdings to plug an annual funding gap without, in my view, considering seriously the strategic importance of these assets. There are innovative ways in which these estates, in partnership and in conjunction with their tenants, could provide a wide range of key services such as local food markets, educational access and other public services—including, potentially, energy generation—to try to ensure they are financially viable, as indicated in this amendment.
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There are many challenges in trying to achieve financially viable businesses on local authority estates, including small farms becoming the equivalent of bed-blockers in hospitals. If tenants granted the tenancy on a starter farm do not move on to a larger unit, the starter farm fails at its purpose. I realise this may be considered too controversial, but I think the starter farm tenancy should be limited to a maximum of 10 years. If the business has not been established and become financially viable to the extent that it can move to a larger holding in 10 years, it is unlikely to succeed.
To move on within a reasonable period requires larger farms to be available to rent. I regard this as a serious concern. Is the farming ladder permanently broken? So many rungs of the ladder have been removed through the merging of farms, particularly by institutional landowners, that opportunities are much more limited than they were when I started my farming business. However, I am unwilling to accept that it is impossible to establish a successful and sustainable long-term farming business on tenanted land. We need new blood today as much as in the past. In fact, one could argue we need an infusion of new blood more than ever in this fast-moving, rapidly changing world.
This amendment may seem like a fringe issue within the Bill, but I regard it as an important opportunity to assist in restructuring the farming sector and ensuring that it is fit for purpose. Retaining the county farm structure is very important in this respect. I also support the other amendments in this grouping that protect the interests of tenants, as recommended by TRIG and as spoken to by the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh.