This blog is the full (unedited) piece, written by George Dunn, TFA Chief Executive, for The Cumberland News and Westmorland Gazette, published on 26 April 2024.
The advent of a new code of practice seeking to regulate relationships within the landlord tenant sector of agriculture tells us two main things.
Firstly, that there is a problem. Whilst the TFA seeks always to support and champion, good landlord and tenant relationships, for many years, we have been reporting that problems exist in those relationships. Many tenant farmers feel very much that they are treated as the junior partner in a relationship which should be more about working together positively to meet shared goals and a shared vision for the land being farmed. At a very basic level, both parties to a tenancy agreement need it to make financial sense. Whilst the Prime Minister may have been heard say that farmers don’t do what they do for the money, financial return is very much part and parcel of the landlord tenant relationship for both parties. The ability to make a sustainable economic return is not usually helped where there is an atmosphere of mistrust, rancour and dispute. Both parties will achieve more in an atmosphere, where is clarity, communication, and collaboration, central themes of the new Code of Practice.
A recent survey carried out by the TFA found that barely 30% of tenant farmers had regular engagement with their landlords or landlords’ agents. Many reported that they only saw their landlord or landlord’s agent when they wanted something. That is not a good basis to foster a collegiate and vibrant landlord tenant sector. Worryingly, 30% of respondents said, they felt bullied or harassed by their landlords, a figure which rose to 37% in respect of engagement with landlords agents.
The second main takeaway point is the fact that we have a problem is now widely recognised beyond just what is being reported by the TFA. It was routinely the case in the past that evidence presented by the TFA was countered by others within the sector as being not the norm, or that it was highlighting a minority problem. The report from the Rock Review, the Tenancy Working Group established by previous DEFRA Secretary of State, George Eustice MP, was a turning point here. The Chair of the review, Baroness Kate Rock, did her own, firsthand investigation of the problem by travelling the length and breadth of the country meeting with landlords and tenants, and hearing directly about what relationships were like. Her report corroborated what the TFA had been saying, and, as a result, recommended the establishment of a Code of Practice and the appointment of a Tenant Farming Commissioner.
We have now seen the fulfilment of the first of those two recommendations with the publication of the new Code of Practice earlier in the month, and we are expecting an announcement on the second of those recommendations at the time of the next Downing Street Farm to Fork Summit in May. The new code has been fully endorsed by the main organisations representing farmers and land owners as well as the professional bodies representing land agents and solicitors within the sector. The wholesale recognition that there is a problem is the first step in resolving the issues that exist. Clearly, relationships will not change overnight, but we now at least have an agreed basis For the type of relationships we want and need to see.
Critics of the code may say that it does little more than highlight what should be common sense for people who wish to have positive commercial relationships. That may be so, but the fact that there is agreement that this needed to be formalised is in itself strong evidence of the problem, but also a determined willingness that we can and must do better.
