21 May 2012
Growers struggling following the wettest April on record and facing concerns over being unable to fulfil forward contracts need to sit down now with customers and come to a workable solution.
21 May 2012
Environmental and funding expertise of Burges Salmon helps secure 500kW on-farm anaerobic digestion (AD) facility.
03 April 2012
Commentary on recent cases relating to the registration (and occasional deregistration) of village greens, sometimes used as a means of frustrating development Town and Village Greens (TVG) evoke images of lazy Sunday afternoons, picnics and cricket. If only this area of law were so peaceful. As has been the case in recent years, the case law in this area continues to grow apace with five new cases in the past four months.
03 April 2012
Is it possible for a term in an agricultural tenancy agreement to be altered by conduct alone? We are often asked to advise on whether it is possible for a written term of a lease under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 to be varied, or waived temporarily or altogether, by a Landlord's conduct.
29 March 2012
It may come as a shock to many landowners that the ownership of minerals beneath their land is by no means guaranteed, even if there is no mention of a third party's ownership of those minerals, either in the recent title deeds or in the registered title.
29 March 2012
In terms of agricultural rents, 2012 is likely to be a year of continued upward pressure; for arable FBTs improved farm profitability means a consistently high appetite for quality land and landlords are using short term FBTs to guarantee the recovery of the land, driving rents upwards.
29 March 2012
Landowners looking to diversify the use of their land might want to look again at festivals and fairs, following the announcement of a series of wide-reaching reforms to the Licensing Act 2003.
29 March 2012
Dealing with regulatory bodies is an integral part of most businesses and the food, farming and rural land sector is no exception.
29 March 2012
The Government brought out a Water White Paper ‘Water for Life’ in December 2011, and is expected to bring forward a draft Water Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny early this year.
29 March 2012
If you supply labour or use workers to provide services in the agriculture sector, you are required to be licensed by the Gangmasters’ Licensing Authority (GLA).
29 March 2012
Those of you who follow The Archers might recall that in our last edition of Agricultural Law Quarterly (ALQ) we discussed the recent problems caused at Bridge Farm by an e.coli outbreak. It seems Pat and Tony have now decided that the damage is sufficient to merit a rebranding exercise.
29 March 2012
As the likelihood of genetically modified (GM) crops being grown in the UK draws ever closer, more attention is being paid to the methods for protection and exploitation of those crops, whether through intellectual property (IP) rights or contract, or a combination of the two.
29 March 2012
Increasing numbers of businesses are finding themselves affected by the EU Food Contact Materials regulations.
23 March 2012
The first drafts of the finance bill implementing the 2012 budget reveal a significant shift in the way that SDLT may be payable on estate or farm purchases, and agents acting for those purchasers need to be aware of this immediately.
19 March 2012
The German Association of Sheep Farmers’ challenge to the implementation of sheep EID legislation provides the perfect opportunity for the UK to bring its own case.
22 December 2011
A comprehensive guide to the law
30 November 2011
Any farming business needs to be aware of the effects of competition law. Guidance issued by the Office of Fair Trading in November 2011 clarifies the law for farming businesses.
11 October 2011
Burges Salmon has advised the shareholders of Somerset-based beef and lamb processor RWM Food Group on its sale to ABP Food Group for an undisclosed sum.
20 July 2011
Whether expenditure is capital or revenue is a key question for traders in computing their profits for tax purposes. This is because revenue expenditure is deductible immediately.
21 June 2011
The Tenancy Deposit Scheme regulations oblige landlords and their agents to safeguard deposits paid by tenants and to provide information to the tenant within 14 days of the deposit - or face punitive sanctions. Case law seems, however, to be softening the impact of those sanctions.
13 June 2011
The new 5% SDLT rate on residential properties with a purchase price of over £1 million came into force on 6 April 2011. The rate only applies where the property concerned is wholly residential, and if there is partial residential use, there is no apportionment of the value between different uses.
10 June 2011
The report by Richard MacDonald's "Farming Regulation Task Force" is a comprehensive and fascinating review of the regulatory problems faced by farmers and food processors. It even seems to supply answers to those problems.
10 June 2011
The complex application forms for the Single Payment Scheme have long been a source of frustration for farmers. A recent case has once again highlighted the problems farmers have encountered in completing the forms and the potential unfairness when innocent mistakes are made.
10 June 2011
The first, long awaited steps to putting in place the groceries code adjudicator, formerly known as the supermarket ombudsman, were taken on May 24 with the publication of the draft Groceries Code Adjudicator bill. While the move has been welcomed by many parts of the food supply chain, it still appears unlikely that an appointment will be made before 2013.
10 June 2011
In a move which has raised eyebrows politically, EU farm minister Dacian Ciolos has spoken out strongly against GM crops and their value in the quest to raise food production to meet growing global demand.
10 June 2011
A recent County Court case may offer some assistance to landowners faced with applications from local residents to register village greens on potential development land. It decided that where a local authority appropriates its own land for planning purposes - as it may under statutory powers - that act of appropriation will override village green rights if the property is developed in accordance with a planning permission. In these circumstances objectors to the development would have little to gain by pursuing registration of the land as a town or village green.
10 June 2011
The legal position, from a planning point of view, behind the demolition of buildings has recently changed following the case of The Queen (on the application of Save Britain's Heritage) and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2011] EWCA Civ 334 ("Save Britain's Heritage"). In the past demolishing a building, whilst being an activity that needed planning permission, was relatively simple, by virtue of a 1995 Direction from the Secretary of State.
10 June 2011
A ruling in March this year on noise nuisance has sounded a warning bell for landowners and businesses where noisy activities and unhappy neighbours could be an issue.
10 June 2011
The Supreme Court has overruled a decision of the High Court (Jones v Kaney 2011) removing the protection from being sued that has been afforded to expert witnesses.
03 June 2011
The result of a farmhouse APR case has just been published which is good news for farmers hoping for relief on their farmhouse despite their semi-retired status or small acreage.
11 April 2011
11 April 2011
11 April 2011
11 April 2011
A new outlook on the prospects for agricultural markets and income in the EU from 2010 to 2020 has been issued by DG AGRI. Based on specific economic and policy assumptions, the estimates outline the expected market trends in the coming years and these market forecasts will be used as a
baseline reference in the ongoing CAP post-2013 impact assessments.
11 April 2011
Recent Agricultural news stories.
31 March 2011
The Coalition emergency Budget last June dramatically overhauled the capital gains tax (CGT) rules. Out went the flat rate of 18% to be replaced by a maximum rate of 28%. There is still no allowance for indexation but Entrepreneurs' Relief remains to reduce the rate of CGT to 10% on the disposal of business assets.
31 March 2011
Three recent announcements suggest that inheritance tax and schemes to avoid it are coming under ever greater scrutiny.
31 March 2011
Points of interest from the 2011 Budget.
01 March 2011
After months of controversy regarding plans for what the media dubbed a ‘super dairy’, the planning application for the UK’s largest dairy farm at Nocton, in Lincolnshire, has been withdrawn.
09 February 2011
A strong EU farm policy is essential in the quest to deliver affordable food, the European Parliament has argued. With worldwide demand growing and 16% of EU citizens below the poverty line, access to food is an increasingly important issue.
03 December 2010
The announcement this week by the Treasury that the Legislative Reform (Industrial and Provident Societies and Credit Unions) Order 2010 will be re-laid before Parliament in the next few weeks has been welcomed by Burges Salmon.
05 November 2010
The consultation for spreading waste on land, launched by the Environment Agency (EA) in October, is a golden opportunity for the Government to demonstrate both its commitment cutting red tape and encourage investment in renewable energy technology.
01 November 2010
Amid a continuing lack of clarity on where Defra will make the £725m of savings agreed by Secretary of State Caroline Spelman, national law firm Burges Salmon has called on the Government to tread carefully where farming is concerned.
14 October 2010
News that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is to take over policy decisions on food labelling, formerly the remit of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), is an opportunity for greater clarity in this area.
13 October 2010
Somerset dairy farmer and Burges Salmon client Neil Baker has beaten off strong national competition to take the prestigious Farmers Weekly Dairy Farmer of the Year Award for 2010.
13 October 2010
Like the feeding of meat and bone meal to livestock, clones and their offspring are an emotive subject where the known science comes up abruptly against politics, consumer perception and media debate.
13 October 2010
It’s an area where science, the precautionary principle and politics meet consumer sensitivities: news that the European Commission is to revisit the total ban on the feeding of meat and bone meal (MBM) has unsurprisingly caught press interest.
08 October 2010
Quite often property is sold subject to something. This could be a lease, or a problem with the title which the Seller is aware of but does not want to rectify.
08 October 2010
In one corner of England scientists have just cracked the complete genetic code of wheat, whilst another has been the subject of an outcry that began when an American newspaper quoted an unnamed British farmer who claimed he was selling milk from a clone-derived animal into the food-chain. So, what is the future of GMOs?
08 October 2010
This summer, several proposals to reform the planning system have hit the headlines as the Coalition Government pursues its localism agenda. Most proposals stem from the Conservative pre-election green paper and aim to restore democratic and local control over the planning system, rebalance the system in favour of sustainable development, and produce a simpler, quicker, cheaper and less bureaucratic planning system.
08 October 2010
At the end of July 2010, the Government announced that it intends to remove the default retirement age of 65 (DRA) by April 2011. If the proposals go ahead, this means that employers will generally no longer be able to retire employees when they reach a particular age and will instead have to rely on another fair reason, for example, poor performance to justify any dismissal.
23 September 2010
A series of afternoon seminars tailored to the interests of farmers, landowners and their professional advisers.
01 September 2010
The result of the HMRC appeal in the Balfour case was published last week. Please click to read on.
10 August 2010
From the 1st of July this year, all pre-packaged organic foods produced within the EU must carry the new "Euro-Leaf" logo (pictured below). The logo is designed to give added consumer confidence in organic products, as it signifies compliance with EU legislation on organic production brought into force in 2009.
09 August 2010
Upcoming dates of this year's Burges Salmon Roadshows.
27 July 2010
In an admirable briefing to members of the CAAV, Jeremy Moody describes Morrison-Low v Paterson (a decision of the Scottish Land Court made on 2 June 2010) as "the first major case on agricultural rent review law perhaps since Childers v Anker". That is not an understatement.
27 July 2010
The new Flood and Water Management Act 2010 is likely to have a significant impact on farming operations, especially on low lying land or where there is a farm reservoir or man made lake. One of the Act's central objectives is to shift the emphasis away from flood defence to "flood and coastal erosion risk management", a concept which allows rural land to flood to protect urban centres.
27 July 2010
The High Court has considered a case between NFU Mutual Insurance Society Limited ("NFU") and HSBC Insurance (UK) Limited ("HSBC") who respectively provided insurance for the buyer and seller of a property.
27 July 2010
Two recent cases consider the grant of a Certificate of Lawfulness for breach of a planning condition.
27 July 2010
Employment law is constantly changing. The employment team have put together a list of some of the recent changes that may affect farming businesses.
27 July 2010
The Coalition’s emergency Budget was delivered on 22 June. The focus was primarily on significant cuts to public spending rather than tax increases, although inevitably tax rates did not escape unscathed. There were no announcements about inheritance tax or the status of non-domiciliaries but of course the Chancellor needs to keep something up his sleeve for next time!
22 July 2010
Under current housing law, a tenancy cannot be assured (which includes an assured shorthold tenancy) if the rent exceeds £25,000 a year. A residential tenancy with an annual rent exceeding £25,000 is a 'common law' tenancy, which enjoys no security of tenure or restriction on rental increases.
28 May 2010
Since 6 April 2010 local authorities have had the right (not the obligation) to charge Community Infrastructure Levy ("CIL") in order to provide a coordinated and predictable method for the funding of infrastructure works on developments.
From April 6 2012, subject to parliamentary approval, the qualifying period for an employee to bring a claim for unfair dismissal is due to rise from one to two years.