On 01 May 2025, TFA members, professionals and others gathered at the York Club, at the Windsor Great Park, to hear about the new environmental Farm Business Tenancy agreement (eFBT) developed by The Crown Estate, in close consultation with the TFA, over the past 18 months. The TFA’s Chief Executive, George Dunn, said that the new agreement represented a “contractual revolution” in the way in which FBT agreements are drafted, making the most of the freedom of contract afforded by the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995 which ushered in FBT agreements. More thoughts from the TFA, The Crown Estate and Burges Salmon around the e-FBT, are available in this week’s Farmers Weekly Podcast. Click here to listen to this episode. The thoughts of key speakers at our Conference start from 33:19 minutes.

An on demand recording of the event, which includes key note speeches from DEFRA Farming Minister, Daniel Zeichner MP, Deputy Ranger and Managing Director, Windsor and Rural, Crown Estate, Paul Sedgwick and TFA Chief Executive, George Dunn will be available later this week, via the TFA’s YouTube channel. To access the TFA’s YouTube channel, click here.   Following these presentations, there was a Farmers Weekly Question Time panel.  This has been turned into a podcast, to listen to this special recording, click here.  There will also be full coverage of the Conference in this week’s Farmers Weekly and also on www.fwi.com.

The Crown Estate has agreed make its eFBT and supporting documentation available as a template for others to use. Anyone interested in receiving the pack of information, including the eFBT agreement, should contact Kevin Kennedy from Burges Salmon, by emailing: kevin.kennedy@burges-salmon.com. The text of the presentation made by the TFA’s Chief Executive, George Dunn, can be read by clicking here.

To listen to a specially convened Farmers Weekly Question Time panel podcast, click here.