Field Talk – Christmas 2019

Welcome to the Christmas 2019 edition of our Agricultural Law Briefing

Our recently published top tier ranking by Chambers and Partners described our agricultural legal team as “excellent” and “a serious player” with four of our partners featuring in the list of eight individually ranked lawyers and as testimony to this we remain busy and challenged with exciting work despite the on-going uncertainty of Brexit.

This special bumper 8-page edition contains articles which showcase the breadth and depth of our full service agricultural offering. Succession planning remains close to the heart of many of our clients and we look at the very recent decision of Gill and how it may affect claiming inheritance tax reliefs on the farmhouse. The critical issue of health and safety is addressed in an article about the hazards of working at height in agriculture and the implications of a fall for both employers and the victims. Our articles on credit control, terms of employment and contract checking seek to address the importance of commercial housekeeping – making sure your business contracts, employees’ terms and conditions and credit control systems are watertight in the face of the choppy political and economic waters ahead. An insight into the exciting world of agri-innovation is provided by the Q & A feature with the MD of Pre-O and last but not least, we look at the septic tank rules which need to be complied with by 1 January 2020.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very happy new year.

Tim Hayden

In this edition:

Grazing licences and agricultural property relief on the farmhouse

The question of whether agricultural property relief (APR) for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes applies to a property used as a farmhouse has been a perennial and contentious one, with a line
of cases attempting to define what constitutes a farmhouse for APR purposes. Read more >>

Contracts: Watch what you sign!

As a business you will come across a whole host of contracts during the lifetime of your business. Read more >>

Working at height: The hazards

Whilst campaigns such as the NFU’s Farm Safety Week have done much to raise awareness of the dangers of farming, the UK’s agriculture sector has the highest workplace death and injury rate of all the main industry sectors with a fatal injury rate 18 times higher than the All industry rate. Read more >>

Q and A with Constantin Huet, Managing Director and Founder of Pre-O

Our Agriculture team recently got the chance to talk with Constantin Huet, MD of Pre-O, a certification label that allows farmers who are making the transition to organic agriculture to market their produce. Read more >>

Septic Tanks: The New Rules

If you operate a septic tank or small sewage treatment plant in England, you need to check that it complies with specific regulations known as the general binding rules (the rules) by 1 January 2020. Read more >>

Reduce late payments and minimise bad debt

According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) up to 30% of payments are late. This can cause cash flow and other difficulties. The FSB estimates that up to 50,000 businesses (including agri-businesses) fail each year as a result. Read more >>

Employment issues for farmers

There has been no better time for farmers and estate managers to review their workers’ terms of employment. Read more >>