The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) has called on Andy Burnham to make tenant farmers a central part of the Government’s programme for farming, food security, rural opportunity and environmental renewal.

TFA Chief Executive, George Dunn, said: “Mr Burnham must act quickly to ensure his new Government gives tenant farmers fair rules, secure foundations and the ability to share properly in the public and private opportunities now reshaping land use.”

“Tenant farmers should not be seen as a marginal interest group. They are responsible for farming 30% of the agricultural land of the country and work hard everyday in producing food, caring for the countryside and sustaining rural communities without the privilege of owning the land beneath their feet. If the Government is serious about standing with those who too often lack power, security and voice, in addressing farming it must start with the tenanted sector of agriculture,” said Mr Dunn.

The TFA is urging the Government to focus on four immediate priorities: encouraging longer-term agricultural tenancies; ensuring all future farming, environment, productivity and nature-market schemes are tenant-proofed; introducing fair compensation for tenant farmers displaced by solar, infrastructure or other development; and setting a practical timetable for tenancy reform during this Parliament.

On tenancy length, short agreements are incompatible with the Government’s ambitions for regenerative agriculture, nature recovery, carbon reduction, soil health and resilient food production.

“A farmer cannot sensibly plan a long-term rotation, build fertility, invest in infrastructure or change a business model if the tenancy horizon is one, two or three years. Warm words about security are not enough. Tenant farmers need a market in which longer-term agreements are normal, rewarded and expected,” said Mr Dunn.

The taxation framework within which landlords make decisions about letting land must be reformed, or an equally effective alternative introduced, to encourage landlords to offer longer lets. Without that change tenant farmers will be asked to deliver long-term national objectives from short-term and insecure business foundations.

The TFA also stressed the need to protect tenant farmers’ access to public support. The Sustainable Farming Incentive showed what can be achieved when schemes are designed with tenants in mind, including three-year agreements, reduced dependence on landlord consent and flexibility where tenancies end unexpectedly.

“Public support for land management should empower the active farmer. It should not allow landlords to claim money on land they have let to others, nor create incentives to remove land from tenants simply to secure easy payments. The person taking the risk and delivering the outcomes must be able to participate,” said Mr Dunn.

The TFA has further warned that the clean energy transition and wider infrastructure needs must not be delivered by pushing tenant farmers off land, out of homes and away from their livelihoods with little or no meaningful compensation.

“Where a landlord secures planning permission for a more lucrative non-agricultural use and the tenant loses part, or all, of a holding, compensation must reflect the tenant’s real loss. That means the loss to the business, the home, the family and the rural community. Development gain must not be built on the dispossession of those who have farmed land responsibly for years, sometimes generations,” said Mr Dunn.

Whilst the TFA has welcomed the Law Commission’s forthcoming work on agricultural tenancy legislation, reform must not be delayed. Some issues require detailed legislative review, but others require immediate policy decisions.

“Tenant farmers cannot wait the best part of a decade for change while short tenancies continue, land is removed from agriculture and compensation gaps remain unfilled. In rebuilding trust with the farming community, Mr Burnham could start in no better place than with the tenanted sector of agriculture,” said Mr Dunn.

The TFA is seeking early engagement with the Prime Minister and his new Ministers and has offered to arrange a visit to a tenanted farm during the Prime Minister’s summer listening tour before Parliament resumes in the autumn.

-Ends-

Ref: MR26/08

Date: 20 July 2026

Notes to the Editor:

To read the letter sent to the Prime Minister, click here.

For media enquiries, contact Julia Meadows, TFA Communications and Events Coordinator, on a or 07887 777157.