Finance

In the run up to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s spring budget announcement on 15th March, rural finance specialists urged the government to maintain green incentives for farming and thaw frozen tax thresholds to ease the strain of cost-of-living price hikes.

Following a long period of recession, the figures are finally looking up for British free range egg producers, according to ADAS costings for March 2023, presented at this year’s BFREPA Roadshows. Farmers Guide staff writer Henrietta Szathmary attended the meeting in Wales on 2nd March to report on the discussion.

The end of the tax year is not far away and there is still the opportunity for rural businesses to make best use of 2022/23 tax allowances and to be in the best position for the start of the next tax year. The Land and Rural Practice Group at Saffery Champness has produced these top five seasonal tax planning tips for farmers and rural businesses.

At Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) 2023, policy campaigners from The Landworkers’ Alliance (LWA) and the Irish equivalent body Talamh Beo provided an update on what small farmers can expect from future subsidy payments across the four UK nations.

The grants will be made available through the Farming Innovation Programme (FIP) and Farming Investment Fund (FIF) – which will sit alongside the ELM scheme.

AHDB is looking to save around £500,000 from its annual budget moving to new headquarters near Coventry better suited to its current sector teams and support staff.

Farmers enrolling in the new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme are being advised to take steps to avoid unnecessary expenses during the application process.

Markets for carbon, biodiversity and other environmental services are widely expected to grow in the coming years. But given the infancy of such markets, there is still tremendous uncertainty about how they will operate. To help address such concerns, Ecosystems Knowledge Network (EKN), a UK-wide independent knowledge hub, is undertaking a review to understand the opportunities and challenges associated with nature finance.

Farming minister Mark Spencer has confirmed increased payments for nature-friendly farming through ELMS, at OFC today (5th January) although farmers are still lacking the important wider details.

Farms and estates that have set up contract farming, share farming and grazing agreements should urgently review them to avoid losing out on valuable tax reliefs, warns Tom Heathcote, Head of Knight Frank’s Agri-Consultancy team.

In his Autumn Statement announcement yesterday (17th November), Chancellor Jeremy Hunt set out a number of tax measures targeting high earners and those who receive dividend payments, as well as further support with energy bills.

Nature-friendly farmers can access free business advice to help with the transition away from BPS payments via a series of events organised by the Soil Association.