Tenant Farmers Association’s chairman, Stephen Wyrill, has said that farm rents need to be reduced this year.

“With little prospect of improvement in farming fortunes into the immediate future, it will be necessary, once again, for the farming community to tighten its belt and it is only right that landlords should share that burden too,” said Mr Wyrill.

“Despite the significant downturn in returns across all sectors we have seen very little response, so far, in terms of farm rents falling. On tenancies let under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 we have seen some reductions and many more standstills. However, I would have expected a larger number of reductions to have been in evidence in 2015. If current economic conditions within agriculture prevail then we must see many more reductions in 2016,” he added.

“For those taking land on Farm Business Tenancies, I continue to be concerned about what I can only describe as exorbitant levels of rent being offered at tender. However, I was very pleased to see the common sense advice coming from the Andersons Centre in its 2016 Outlook Report, which said that if rent was more than a third of output it was better to walk away than allow damage to the wider business. We need wide-scale action to get rents down,” he concluded.

Photo Credit: TFA

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