Biodiversity offsetting - Anyone done it?

Huno

Member
Arable Farmer
Good biomass with a sslightly higher rate per tonne drymatter than willow....
Bleed the developers for 3 yrs and then give me 10% of the extra wealth you generate between now and then... or give it to my charity and buy me some mustard pants plse?
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
Just wait until 2025 when this all calms down.. just like crypo mining....quote from our reigning monarch.. not the heirs to the throne.... Regency anyone??
But there have been get rich opportunities in the past and I have always missed them... cryto
con-urrancy was certainly one Early adopters always win big... except when they loose big...
 
as a little update
Legal opinion is based on the current framework if payments stop the terms of termination would be down to the contract terms.

Notice how it is no compulsory as many local authorities are not yet doing offsetting - the legal framework gives the council very little to go on if payments are not made.

My contract comes with a fallback clause to the council to pick up the offset - IF they want to, and claim back from the homeowners......
I can see this as the next miss selling scandal in a few years when home owners cant sell their house as bob the farmer down the road is owed £20k plus legal bills costing 10x that.

MY LA planning prefers I get paid upfront for everything without any annual, or the bank investment fund model as it covers their ass and protects from future issues - but they have no power or right to determine the framework of the offset compensation package - that is none of their business - their only power is agreeing to the offset and its nature, and then requiring it be delivered. Its to the extent they dont even know what I am to be paid and the developers are hardline keen they never know.......

Plus side the fields were limed this week and are about to swim in muck !
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
as a little update
Legal opinion is based on the current framework if payments stop the terms of termination would be down to the contract terms.

Notice how it is no compulsory as many local authorities are not yet doing offsetting - the legal framework gives the council very little to go on if payments are not made.

My contract comes with a fallback clause to the council to pick up the offset - IF they want to, and claim back from the homeowners......
I can see this as the next miss selling scandal in a few years when home owners cant sell their house as bob the farmer down the road is owed £20k plus legal bills costing 10x that.

MY LA planning prefers I get paid upfront for everything without any annual, or the bank investment fund model as it covers their ass and protects from future issues - but they have no power or right to determine the framework of the offset compensation package - that is none of their business - their only power is agreeing to the offset and its nature, and then requiring it be delivered. Its to the extent they dont even know what I am to be paid and the developers are hardline keen they never know.......

Plus side the fields were limed this week and are about to swim in muck !
The government are very keen on this (well, someone is) as how else do they have any hope of delivering their '25 year Environment plan'.

Your posts have crystallised some very big issues with all this upon which it could easily collapse. My worry is the government seeing it trotter once a few high profile agreements are in place and simply issuing a regulation (which they can do without going in front of the commons and having it scrutinised iirc) to make an agreement enforceable by the planning authority without payment of the agreement they defaults.

OTOH surely that would kill all future agreements stone dead?
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
The government are very keen on this (well, someone is) as how else do they have any hope of delivering their '25 year Environment plan'.

Your posts have crystallised some very big issues with all this upon which it could easily collapse. My worry is the government seeing it trotter once a few high profile agreements are in place and simply issuing a regulation (which they can do without going in front of the commons and having it scrutinised iirc) to make an agreement enforceable by the planning authority without payment of the agreement they defaults.

OTOH surely that would kill all future agreements stone dead?
Totally. My fear was if the Govt tried to make it retrospective, and it ending up in the Courts....
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
The government are very keen on this (well, someone is) as how else do they have any hope of delivering their '25 year Environment plan'.

Your posts have crystallised some very big issues with all this upon which it could easily collapse. My worry is the government seeing it trotter once a few high profile agreements are in place and simply issuing a regulation (which they can do without going in front of the commons and having it scrutinised iirc) to make an agreement enforceable by the planning authority without payment of the agreement they defaults.

OTOH surely that would kill all future agreements stone dead?
At which point they might have to deploy some sort of compulsory purchase order to make up the shortfall or drop the offsetting requirement else all development would cease... 🤷‍♂️
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
With farm land at 8000 to 10000 an acre
25 k per ha buys the land no need to pay a rent
why pay more than that plenty of low grade 3 land that is either to thin drought prone or wet heavy land needing draining
unless the land has to be close to the development

land is over 20k /acre here now (grade 2 arable with no hope value - that's based on some we have just had taken on compulsory purchase for a sewage works extension
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Absolutely, the original "Teflon company" approach... :facepalm::mad:

I know of cases where its happened on land sales, overage payments based on sales value etc completely voided by a simple merger of companies

if it wasn't for that quite frankly for 30k /acre and £1000/ha index linked I would stuff the entire farm into it and retire to a yacht somewhere a very looooooong way from red tractor !! - 30 years from now (hopeful I may live that long !!). my kids would still inherit and
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
My contract comes with a fallback clause to the council to pick up the offset - IF they want to, and claim back from the homeowners......
I can see this as the next miss selling scandal in a few years when home owners cant sell their house as bob the farmer down the road is owed £20k plus legal bills costing 10x that.



Plus side the fields were limed this week and are about to swim in muck !
Maybe build it into the Council tax bill...?



Some good, long term planning going on there @Coximus I worry if that is enough Lime though..... ;)
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
I know of cases where its happened on land sales, overage payments based on sales value etc completely voided by a simple merger of companies

if it wasn't for that quite frankly for 30k /acre and £1000/ha index linked I would stuff the entire farm into it and retire to a yacht somewhere a very looooooong way from red tractor !! - 30 years from now (hopeful I may live that long !!). my kids would still inherit and
would you not first dump that cash another farm, then biodiversify that too, with £30K you can buy one 50% bigger than the first... then bio-d that one and roll it again for another 50% gain.. and so on... you can then have 2 yachts....
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
would you not first dump that cash another farm, then biodiversify that too, with £30K you can buy one 50% bigger than the first... then bio-d that one and roll it again for another 50% gain.. and so on... you can then have 2 yachts....

I can invest cash in far higher return things than farming but maybe form a IHT point of view buying more land maybe wise yes and as you say you could just keep doing this as long as you can source the land ......... how long will it remain at just 20k per acre however when this is an option ? I hear Ed Sheeran is looking at buying that 4000 acre estate to rewild ...... ag buyer won't stand a chance if he does

- if not actually farming your land profitably you need income however, I have no ambition to spend my life working for my children's benefit, they will get enough even if I add no more than I have now and have invested in a education that should make them more than capable of making their own way regardless, they will be far smarter and capable than me
 
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Huno

Member
Arable Farmer
would you not first dump that cash another farm, then biodiversify that too, with £30K you can buy one 50% bigger than the first... then bio-d that one and roll it again for another 50% gain.. and so on... you can then have 2 yachts....
Surely you have a yacht already Clive? Just not a superyacht yet😉
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
I can invest cash in far higher return things than farming but maybe form a IHT point of view buying more land maybe wise yes and as you say you could just keep doing this as long as you can source the land ......... how long will it remain at just 20k per acre however when this is an option ? I hear Ed Sheeran is looking at buying that 4000 acre estate to rewild ...... ag buyer won't stand a chance if he does

- if not actually farming your land profitably you need income however, I have no ambition to spend my life working for my children's benefit, they will get enough even if I add no more than I have now and have invested in a education that should make them more than capable of making their own way regardless, they will be far smarter and capable than me
I know the feeling...
 
Maybe build it into the Council tax bill...?



Some good, long term planning going on there @Coximus I worry if that is enough Lime though..... ;)
well they were limed in 15 and again in 19, as they were down at ph5 when i got them. Horses previously so the land was a wreck.

the Lime I had in 19 was from tarmac and utterly crap - wasnt lime by anymeans with 45% above 1mm in size, more a grit.

Good news is the PH has continued to rise from 6.1 in 2020 to 6.4 this year, so the coarse bits are slowly doing something.

This was chalk, so fingers crossed.
 
would you not first dump that cash another farm, then biodiversify that too, with £30K you can buy one 50% bigger than the first... then bio-d that one and roll it again for another 50% gain.. and so on... you can then have 2 yachts....
The land wanted for offsetting - theirs lots of people out and about buyng up speculative offsets options but in reality these will never come to anything - and most of the country wont benefit.
It needs to be close enough to a development to be part of the same "Biosphere" but at the same time needs to be far enough out not to encroach on future development chances.... so basically like a halo around the big cities.

Some councils will accept bits further away but will want a bigger offset as the price, but the developers in reality will pay a fixed price for the offset, not the acreage.

Also - the offset is to replace , IE offset the loss of biodiversity in the development.

I know of one rough grass field that has been neglected for 30 odd years, occasionally seen sheep, suddenly this year It has beet in it, totally sterile seed bed..... and planning is going in next year. THat 20 acres will reqeuire sweet FA offset - infact as theirs hardly any hedges they could probably do 0.5ac within the site and have an offset ratio of 50 to 1....

In reality offsets will come down to a cost / loss equation, and they will provoke alot more forward planning.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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