New FBT on hold?

[YorkshireSmallholder]

Hi there,

Before coronavirus I had been shortlisted for a small farm on FBT, but unfortunately everything has been put on hold due to Coronavirus. Fingers crossed it picks back up soon as I feel as though our life is on hold.

I wondered if anybody was in a similar position or whether other agents were starting to get moving again with progressing new tenancies?

I’ve just found the forum and it’s given me a lot of info on a successful tenancy but I’m getting frustrated we are currently stuck in limbo, it would be good to hear if anybody else is moving forward with new tenancies. Hoping for some positive news soon!

 

[Goweresque]

Its down to the timetable and method of ending BPS I'm afraid. Its been mooted that BPS will be de-linked from the need to farm land during its phasing out, this means that there will at some point be an announcement as to what years will be used as the reference years for this process. Until that decision has been made and published by Defra, all landlords will be holding fire on issuing new FBTs.

For example, if a 3 year FBT had been granted to start in September 2019, and then later this year its announced that the BPS will in future be paid to whoever was claiming it in the years 2019 and 2020, then the landlord would have lost any future rights to BPS, even after the FBT had ended in 2022. Plus nobody knows if being in control of the land at some currently unspecified point in time may not be crucially important with respect to the new ELMS scheme.

So everyone is sitting on their hands, waiting for Defra to make it 100% clear exactly how this transition process will operate. Once that is clear and set down in law, then people will feel safe to grant tenancies. I myself am on the other end of the problem - I'd like to put my arable land out to tender, and have a number of interested parties, but until the way forward is made clear I'm just using a contractor on a year to year basis.

 

[YorkshireSmallholder]

Many thanks for your response, I hadn’t considered the BPS payments. I’ll be a bit more patient, it helps knowing others are in the same position and it’s completely understandable from a landowner’s perspective when considering what you’ve said.

 

[Mc115reed]

Many thanks for your response, I hadn’t considered the BPS payments. I’ll be a bit more patient, it helps knowing others are in the same position and it’s completely understandable from a landowner’s perspective when considering what you’ve said.

Corona virus has came along at a perfect time for landlords too stall rent reviews ect in the hope of the bps payment debate being cleared up a bit better

 

[Formatted]

If you haven't already call the agent,

 

[Brisel]

If you haven't already call the agent,

The OP should call theirs. How long a FBT is it @YorkshireSmallholder ? The slowing down of the Agriculture Bill through Parliament due to Brexit and CV19 hasn't helped. Goweresque is right - there may well be a historical element of the BPS phasing out to discourage mass restructuring to abuse the system. My landlord is fully expecting a wave of rent review notices when the Ag bill gets Queen's Assent. He hasn't had many reviews recently, only scheduled ones & they have asked for a review post Bill too.

 

[Formatted]

The OP should call theirs. How long a FBT is it @YorkshireSmallholder ? The slowing down of the Agriculture Bill through Parliament due to Brexit and CV19 hasn't helped. Goweresque is right - there may well be a historical element of the BPS phasing out to discourage mass restructuring to abuse the system. My landlord is fully expecting a wave of rent review notices when the Ag bill gets Queen's Assent. He hasn't had many reviews recently, only scheduled ones & they have asked for a review post Bill too.

TBH it sounds like the tenancy slowdown OP is talking about is not due to the AgBill but Cornavirus

 

[Flat 10]

Tell them to pull their fingers out

 

[YorkshireSmallholder]

Thanks everybody, I will call tomorrow as it looks like other landlords are getting moving - the delay was due to coronavirus.

It’s a 5 year FBT Initially.