The Council own an Agricultural estate of 410 hectares (863.24 acres). The properties comprise of 18 holdings of between 4.31 acres and 78.87 acres (the "Estate").
The current policy (the "Policy") which relates to the Estate was principally set in 2005 when the former Shropshire County Council, (as a forerunner authority to Shropshire Council) took a decision to retain the remaining small holding estate, but allow the individual small holdings to be sold as they became vacant or were sold to the existing tenants on request. There were minor amendments to the Policy in December 2014 to allow for tenants to surrender their tenancies and in February 2016 to allow for direct descendants to tenants to acquire the holdings.
Given the present pressures on Public Sector funding and spending, Shropshire Council is having to review all activities undertaken by the Council in order to prioritise its expenditure. There is less funding available to Shropshire Council than in previous years and it needs to ensure that the funds are used in a way that has the most positive impact for our community. Current projections suggest that no funding at all will be made by Central Government to Local Government by 2020.
Since our last consultation and subsequent Policy amendment, rents of the Farm Estate have been reviewed. Rents are linked to the earnings potential of each holding. Against modern standards the sizes of the holdings are small, there is therefore no further scope to offset costs of repairs and maintenance which exceed income from rents. The fact that the holdings are too small to carry out even subsistence farming, has resulted in the council’s preferred action being a disposal of the remaining Estate. The Council is now seeking views on this proposed Policy change in this Consultation.
In formulating the Consultation and proposed Policy change the Council has had regard to Part III, Agricultural Act 1970 which states that a council:
Shall make it their general aim to offer opportunities for persons to be farmers on their own account.
It has also considered the view of DEFRA which (as MAFF) in 1999 wrote:
Advice from the Ministry’s Legal Department to officials and to Ministers has been clear over many years: Section 39 does not impose the specific duty that smallholdings must be maintained at a particular level. Neither the policy nor object of Part III of the Act was to do so.
The express duty imposed by section 47(I) of the Agricultural Act 1947 on Local Authorities to provide statutory smallholdings was repealed by the 1970 Act and replaced by the general aim provision.
The aim of this Consultation is to gather opinion on the options available to the Council with respect to the Estate. The Council will consider the responses to the consultation and take the outcome of the consultation into account before making a final decision. Following the consultation, we will prepare a paper to be presented to the Council with a recommendation on the future direction of the Estate.
This consultation sets out a number of options available. The options have been drawn up after much deliberation. Below we have sought to outline the options we are considering and identify the key advantages, disadvantages and potential impact of each option. However, the Council remains open-minded as to the benefits and / or disadvantages of the Options available and you may be able to identify other factors which we have not identified below, and we would therefore welcome your views on what those additional factors are.
At the end of the consultation the paper will be considered at a cabinet meeting on 6 July 2016 and a council meeting on the 21 July 2016.