Preface
Like previous editions of this work, this fourth edition seeks to give an integrated account of the law governing both the tenure and use of agricultural land. The text adopts the same format as the third edition, and is divided into three sections.
An historical introduction to farm tenancy legislation and the regulation of agricultural land use is given in the two chapters comprising Section I. This is followed in Section II by commentary on the law governing farm tenancies and tied cottages. Section III covers the law of land use in its application to agricultural land. The Appendix has been retained, and gives procedural checklists - a table of time limits for the service of statutory notices, and guidance notes on arbitration in farm tenancy disputes, and on prescribed forms for agricultural land tribunal proceedings. Most legislative material is now readily available online, and the text of relevant legislation (for example the Arbitration Act 1996) has therefore been omitted from the Appendix in this new edition. I have instead given the web links for easy access to the statutory material as relevant.Agricultural law has undergone major changes sine the last edition was published in 2008. The volume of environmental legislation applicable to agriculture has continued to grow, and the European Union’s Europe 2020 reform process has led to further changes in the land use controls introduced through the common agricultural policy. The chapters in Section 111 (land use) have been substantially remodelled to take account of these changes. The chapters on farm tenancy law have also been revised to take account of legislative changes and case law, and also to reflect the continuing work of the Tenancy Reform Industry Group – for example the introduction of new model clauses for farm tenancy agreements in 2015. Where relevant, the text seeks to integrate consideration of land use controls with the law of land tenure - so that, for example, the chapters on farm business tenancies and agricultural holdings include discussion of the impact on the drafting of farm tenancy agreements of the introduction of the basic payment scheme in 2015, of changes in the various agri-environment schemes that have taken place since 2008, and of the implications of changes in planning law and pollution control.
Special thanks are owed to a number of friends and colleagues for their assistance in the preparation of this, and earlier, editions.
Professor Michael Cardwell generously commented on Chapters 2, 3 and 15 of this new edition, and Peter Williams must be thanked for comments on Chapters 4, 6 and 12. Earlier editions have also benefited from the applied wisdom of a number of colleagues, notably Angela Sydenham and Peter Williams, who read the chapters on farm business tenancies and, in Peter’s case, also provided invaluable assistance with the preparation of earlier versions of the material on farm cottages now to be found in Chapter 11. These are rigorous and thorough reviewers to whom I owe a debt of gratitude, but responsibility for any errors or obscurities that remain are, of course, mine alone. I am also grateful to Hannah Sankannawar for research assistance in the preparation of this new edition. I would also draw the reader’s attention to the excellent resources available on the website of the Agricultural Law Association (www.ala.org.uk), which includes not only a comprehensive collection of law reports, but also transcipts of decisions of the Lower Tier Tribunal and of the Agricutural Land Tribunals. Finally, I must acknowledge the generosity of Thomson Reuters for agreeing to release the copyright in my two sections of the loose leaf work Agricultural Law Tax and Finance, without which the preparation of the chapters of the current work on the law of land use would have been immeasurably more difficult.This fourth edition seeks to state the law as at 31 January 2016.
Christopher Rodgers
Northumberland
January 2016