Welcome to the Winter edition of our newsletter and a very Happy New Year to you. In this quarter's edition our Regional Head of Property Sales, Matthew Allen, provides a helpful property market update and Will Taylor updates us on the challenges facing farmers in the 2015 agricultural year. For those interested in diversifying out of agriculture and perhaps into some form of renewable energy, we also include an update from our Sector Head Darren Edwards, who warns that 2016 is going to be a challenging year following severely cut feed-in tariffs. Darren is supported regionally by Hywel Morse, so please feel free to contact either of them directly should you wish to discuss your options further.

Permitted Development Rights for conversion of redundant agricultural buildings into residential use have caused both elation and confusion since their introduction and accordingly Amy Hutsby of our Banbury office writes about where we are now, whilst our HS2 expert Jonathan Perks brings us up to date with the latest HS2 news. We round up with our Meet The Team section which provides links to our Thame and Banbury contact pages as well as reporting on Will's recent success with his professional exams - Well done to Will, we're very proud to have you on board!

Another year starts and all agents are asked for their predictions for the year ahead. Crystal ball gazing is never easy but there is a general consensus that with hopefully relatively stable economic factors most experts are predicting a slight rise in prices over the coming year. This ranges from perhaps 3 -7% across the board. This will be aided by continued low interest rates expected to remain in place over the course of the year.

Indeed, if the first few days of the year are anything to go by it would appear there is a reasonable amount of pent up demand from purchasers looking to secure a property early in 2016. The leading property portal Rightmove which traditionally states that Boxing Day is its busiest day of the year for online traffic was reporting that activity was 22% up on last year. Buyers may also be looking to capitalise on buying property before the 3% additional stamp duty payable on all second homes and buy to let investment property that comes in after April 1st.

Equally, across this region's FG offices we have reported a 13% increase in applicant registrations and 18% increase in viewings in the first two weeks of the year. To satisfy this demand we have some interesting new properties launched across the region this month. These include Ford Farm Barn and Orchard Barn at Ford, Buckinghamshire comprising two substantial barn conversions, annexe and land currently used for grazing alpacas. The guide prices are &2.3 million and &950,000 respectively. A short distance outside Banbury we have launched two impressive village properties. Hill Farmhouse in Great Bourton (Guide price &745,000) and Potters Mill in Bloxham (Guide Price &790,000), have both attracted very strong initial interest.

Ford Farm Barn, Ford, Buckinghamshire

On the agricultural side there has been a relatively quiet period on transactions right across the region but the general feeling is that values of bare agricultural land may have ‘topped out’ at circa &10,000/acre. However, there is still very strong demand for the larger blocks of land of circa 300 acres plus where there is a considerable amount of ‘millionaire farmers’ who have rollover money to spend from recently sold development land. Despite the quietness in the market Fisher German have secured instructions on a number of significant instructions to launch this spring including a traditional residential estate in Northamptonshire, an equestrian centre in Buckinghamshire and a 130 acre farm with a diverse commercial income of over &115,000.

Development land continues to be in strong demand as developers look to capitalise on the relaxation of the planning laws to meet ever stronger residential needs. Small sites with detailed planning permission for 2 to 5 residential units are particularly desirable.

If you have any property you are considering selling this year please contact Matthew Allen on 07810 378190 or email him here 

Since May 2003, changes to the General Permitted Development Order have meant that redundant agricultural buildings can be converted to residential units without having to apply for ‘full’ planning permission, provided the plans meet the approval of the local authority through what is known as a ‘prior approval’ application.

In theory this should make it very simple to gain approval for conversion by following a simple set of criteria and establishing that you comply. However, as is often the case with planning law, the new changes have not proved to be quite so straightforward and have been open to wide interpretations across the country as planning authorities have struggled to come to terms with a change in the law which is for them, a complete turnaround from the previous, much more restrictive position which was upheld by their own local policies.

There have been numerous examples up and down the country where local authorities have refused prior approval in cases that would have appeared to comply. Many examples have been on the grounds that the proposed new dwelling will be unsustainable due to its open countryside location and lack of access to facilities. Others have been refused on the basis that the proposed dwelling(s) will increase the number of units over the threshold of three. An example encountered by the Fisher German planning department involved the local authority demanding a contribution towards affordable housing – a decision that was overturned in a landmark appeal case.

New guidance

New guidance was subsequently issued in March to help local authorities and applicants to interpret the legislation. The guidance seems to confirm the overriding principle of the legislation – as a country we need more homes and redundant agricultural buildings can help to contribute towards this. The Government does not want a free for all, hence the criteria, but neither did they introduce the legislation purely so that the planners could continue to say no, or find elaborate ways to do so.

The further guidance has clarified that:

• The local planning authority must only consider the National Planning Policy Framework to the extent that is relevant to the matter on which prior approval is sought;
• Sustainability of location cannot be tested;
• The total number of new homes which can be developed under the right is three, this does not include existing residential properties.

As a regional firm, Fisher German have submitted applications to most of the local authorities in the area and, notwithstanding the further guidance issued, there continues to be very little that could be described as a consistent approach from any of them. Some are now insisting on a structural survey with every application, some want a bat survey to register the application, we have had some applications where an agricultural occupancy condition has been imposed without any prior discussion and others that have refused to register the application as a two stage approach.

Confusion

We have also received numerous enquiries from people confused as to what the consent enables them to do. I recently spoke to a client who was on the point of purchasing a property that benefited from consent under Part (a) of Class Q of the General Permitted Development Order. What this essentially allows is the change of use, but does not permit any of the building works necessary to make the conversion and a further application under Part (b) would be required first. Although the Local Authority had accepted an application under Part (a), this by no means guarantees that the application under Part (b) would be successful. Consent for the change of use is essentially meaningless unless you are happy to live in a barn without making any changes to it, such as installing windows and doors! This is a very crucial point for any would-be purchaser to consider and illustrates why it is essential to familiarise yourself with the intricacies of this complex area of planning law before committing yourself to a purchase.

Professional experience counts 

Sadly, the Government’s desired aim of releasing more buildings for conversion to boost rural housing numbers has not been met yet and appears to be some way off if the current interpretation continues. To stand any chance of success with this type of application it is necessary to have a good knowledge of the Local Authority under which you are making the application, which is why it is essential to use an agent with this experience. Fisher German are continuing to have success in this area and to build up local knowledge and experience with which to guide our clients in this complex area.

If you think that you have a building with potential, please contact Amy Hutsby for more information and advice on 01295 226296 mob 07918 677568 or email her

The year of 2015 certainly proved to be an interesting one in agricultural circles! The first two quarters of the year were hijacked by Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Reform and the introduction of the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS).

The much heralded online system looked set to mark the revolution for applications, only for it to fall at the first hurdle. There was then a frenzy over paper based applications and a plethora of new land use codes to exercise the mind. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has recently announced that almost 51% of claimants should now have received their BPS 2015 payment.

Harvest 2015 was late to start, with only very occasional winter barley crops ready for harvest prior to 15 July. Good progress was made during late July and into early August with winter barley, winter oilseed rape and milling wheat across most of southern England. However some showery weather from mid-August through to early September resulted in rain delays affecting the end of harvest in the south and the start of harvest in the north. Conditions in September, especially later in the month, allowed for slow but steady progress to be made toward completing harvest in the English regions.

Varying yields

Yields varied greatly but overall were 7 – 14% above average across all cereal and oilseeds. Indeed for one Lincolnshire farmer it was a record year who recorded a yield of 16.5 t/ha, only to be out done 10 days later by a Northumberland grower who recorded 16.52 t/ha on his farm overlooking Holy Island on the Northumberland Coast. Closer to home in South Oxfordshire, farmers have reported good yields generally for milling wheat in the region of 10 t/ha.

Whilst yield and quality of many crops were good, UK wheat prices finished the 2015 year almost &20/t lower than the starting positions. Farmers were in a very similar position 12 months ago, with uninspiring prices and large stocks meaning not many growers are securing futures positions for 2016 crops.

In the latter part of the year, many farmers again were hit by flood water. Perhaps not to the damaging extent of the 2013/2014 storms but this is a reoccurring theme across parts of the UK and may cause pressure on forage supplies for the year.
Livestock farmers have also had a turbulent year. The dairy crisis was been widely reported in recent times. It is easy to label the supermarket giants as the villains; however the UK has added more additional milk into the global pot over the last two years than any other EU country. Arguably this has led to an even faster fall in prices for British dairy produce compared to the global prices. The cost of production remains relatively stable at around 32p per litre, although some farmers are receiving little more than 20p per litre.

Meat prices 

Global meat prices remain on the downturn. On average, meat prices during 2015 were reported to be 15% lower than in 2014 and by December the annual gap was even larger, with the latest quote 23% down on December 2014. In the first week of 2016, many livestock markets have indicated strong trades. Thame Livestock Market (who are affiliated with Fisher German’s Thame Office) in particular have reported a roaring trade in the start of the year for store cattle.

What's in store? 

So what does 2016 have in store for the farming community? Well the annual Oxford Farming Conference used the strap line of ‘Innovate or Stagnate’ strongly suggesting that there is a call for more entrepreneurship within the industry. This is particularly poignant given the increasing cost pressures that face farming businesses.

Fisher German LLP is ever expanding the knowledge and skill base of their well-established Farms Department. A link to Fisher German’s Agrifacts providing monthly updates on commodity prices and latest trends for grain markets can be found here.

For further information on agricultural matters please contact Will on 01844 267945 or email him here

When the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) launched a full scale review of the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) in August 2015, proposing new stringent cost control measures ahead of a possible phased closure of the scheme in January 2016, you could have been forgiven for thinking it was the beginning of the end.

However, following an inevitable period of grave uncertainty for those within the industry, on 17 December 2015 and less than a week after the Paris Agreement [which saw 195 countries agree to a global warming limiting target of 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100], DECC published its response outlining a commitment to continue offering generation tariffs until April 2019. Self-billed as a reflection of the Government’s determination “to deliver a low-carbon future that meets both the UK’s international obligations and domestic ambitions”, the 115-page consultation outcome acknowledged receipt of nearly 55,000 written separate responses, backed up by multiple campaign orchestrated petitions with over 100,000 signatories. So, what opportunities and challenges does it present for on-farm renewable energy investments in 2016?

One of the Government’s key objectives was ‘ensuring better value for money’, involving revised generation tariffs to kick-in from 8 February 2015. However, the FIT scheme will be ‘paused’ from 15 January 2016 in order for the changes to be implemented and in the intervening period only those projects with pre-accreditation granted before 1 October 2015 will be able to accredit. The not unexpected but nevertheless abrupt implementation of legislative changes brought an immediate end to many planned and part-progressed farm based renewable energy schemes, in turn proving hugely frustrating for stakeholders and investors. The Government’s record of ‘moving the goalposts’ at short notice is a lingering risk and ongoing concern. It also arguably presents the greatest challenge to further on-farm investment in renewable energy going forward.

New tariffs

For those with projects well advanced but perhaps not pre-accredited, some recompense came in the form of new tariffs less severely cut than outlined in DECC’s consultation document. Solar PV tariffs will range from 0.87p/kW for stand-alone and 1MW+ schemes to 4.39p/kWh for sub-10kW schemes, wind tariffs will range from 0.86p/kW for 1.5MW+ schemes to 8.54p/kWh for sub-100kW schemes, and hydro tariffs will range from 4.43p/kW for 2MW+ schemes to 8.54p/kWh for sub-100kW schemes. Whilst these revised tariff rates retain or present an opportunity for some projects (notably those with high on-farm electricity demand that can utilise the generation), the Government’s target rates of return of 4.8% rate for solar, 5.9% for wind, and 9.2% for hydro will prove insufficiently attractive to warrant the planning and development challenges for others (notably those proposing 100% export).

Control on spending 

In ‘controlling spend’, the Government has widened the pre-review system of quarterly deployment caps with both default and contingent degression. This is driven by a new maximum &100 million annual FIT budget to be available from January 2016. Deployment levels will be tracked by Ofgem going forward, but represent a challenge for some technologies with low caps, notably AD which has a deployment cap of 5.8MW in Q1 2016 and then 5MW per quarter thereafter until 2019. This will restrict support to relatively few AD plants which, when coupled with unclear tariff rates and a review of interaction between the FIT and Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) on combined heat and power (CHP) projects, makes for a challenging time for on-farm AD schemes in the short-medium term. The continuance of the RHI still offers hope for biomethane plants whilst some reduction in capital costs will mean there remains opportunities in 2016 for well-planned projects.

One of the key outcomes of DECC’s consultation response was the reintroduction of preliminary accreditation – previously ended by the Government on 1 October 2015. Due to recommence on 8 February 2016 for solar and wind projects over 50kW and all hyrdro and AD projects, it should ensure finance is available for demonstrably viable projects. The eligibility periods for hydro and AD have been changed to 2 years which offers good assurance for schemes that can obtain planning permission in 2016.

From 15 January 2016 the Government has confirmed installations will not be able to ‘extend’ their capacity under the FIT scheme. There will be no grace period available for extensions. This will prove a blow to some farm based schemes who hoped to expand existing renewable energy schemes in 2016.

Finally, another important consideration for projects affected by DECC’s announcement is the payment of FIT generation and export rates, which will not occur until Ofgem have fully ROO-FIT accredited the installation. Given this is currently taking anywhere from 6-12 months post-application, this could mean serious knock-on cash flow implications which need to be accounted for through the project development.

Challenging times ahead 

It is without question that 2016 will be a challenging year for all forms of renewable energy, both at farm and commercial scale. That said, I would urge investors not to dismiss renewable energy as it will be possible to improve on the Government target return rates, particularly at locations with high onsite electricity usage. The amended tariffs place greater emphasis on matching supply with demand, something that has often been overlooked when the tariffs have been generous. Factor in continued improvements in technology efficiency, further manufacturer cost reductions as demand falls, and the emergence of battery storage technology in the UK and the impact this will have on the viability of renewable energy schemes, and the future can remain green.

For further information on renewable energy projects contact:

Darren Edwards 07918 677571 or email him here

Hywel Morse 07501 720414 or email him here

To many, it will seem that little has been happening in recent months on HS2 but in the background the scheme is one major step closer to implementation. The House of Commons Select Committee, which has been sitting hearing petitions for many months is imminently to draw to a close. There is another petition period to the House of Lords but one suspects that this will be a considerably shorter period due to many petitioners having dealt with their issues through the Commons process. HS2 have publically stated that they expect to have Royal Assent to the Bill by the end of 2016 but this must be considered a tight deadline with potential for this to be extended into 2017. As they are planning on getting spades in the ground by mid to late 2017 the practical effect may be to reduce the amount of time available to affected parties to get their affairs in order before HS2 take occupation of their land.

Meanwhile HS2 are still looking to gain access onto land in advance of the Bill being passed in order to undertake environmental and ground investigation surveys. They do not have legal powers to demand such access, so any that is undertaken is by agreement with licence being put in place.

Fisher German are well placed to assist those affected by HS2. Our Thame and Banbury offices are close to the line and serve those affected between the M25 and the M42, with other offices being close to the remainder of the route. We have assisted many of those who either have property taken by the scheme or are close enough to the line that the effect of its announcement has led to them having difficulties selling their property. We have overseen sales to HS2 of property either by Blight Notice (where land is taken) or the Need to Sell Scheme (where the property is close to the line but no land is taken); have represented those affected in appearing before the Parliamentary Select Committee and; are undertaking negotiations with HS2 as to the effect of the scheme on property owners and how these effects might be mitigated. Where HS2 are taking access to our clients land, this is via licence agreement that is of more beneficial terms than those put forward directly by HS2.

In many cases our fees are met by HS2 under their requirement to meet claimant’s losses, the exception being for Need to Sell applications for which we have a very high success rate.

For further information on how Fisher German can assist you in HS2 matters, contact Jonathan Perks on 01295 226282 or email him here

Hot off the press... we are delighted to announce that Will Taylor of our Thame office has successfully passed his professional exams and is now both a fully qualified Chartered Surveyor (MRICS) and a Fellow of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (FAAV).  Not satisfied with these qualifications alone he has also been admitted as an Associate of the British Institute of Agricultural Consultants.  Aside from his personal development these qualifications broaden the skill set and expertise that Fisher German can offer in the region. Three cheers to Will for such a magnificent achievement!

Dates for your diary... we are delighted to report that we shall be attending the following fantastic agricultural shows as usual this year, at which we look forward to you joining us for refreshments as usual:

• The Bedfordshire Young Farmers Country Show and Rally is to be held on Saturday 21st May 2016 at Manor Farm, Pertenhall, Bedford MK44 2AZ.

• Thame Summer Sheep Fair is to be held on Thursday 4 and Friday 5 August 2016 at Thame Showground, Kingsey Road, Thame OX9 3JL.  The sale of breeding sheep usually starts at 10.00 am, with rams starting at 12 noon.

• Blakesley Show is to be held on Saturday 6 August 2016 at Blakesley Heath Farm, Maidford, Northamptonshire NN12 8HN.  The show is usually open from 8am until 5pm.

• Bucks County Show is to be held on Thursday 1 September 2016.  The showground is in Weedon Park, Weedon, near Aylesbury on the A413 between Aylesbury and Whitchurch. The postcode for Satellite Navigation is HP22 4NN, and the event opens at around 8am and closes at around 4pm.

View members of our Banbury office here

View members of our Thame office here