RICS supports implementation of Rock review

In February 2022, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) set out two clear objectives for Baroness Rock and her agricultural tenancy working group.

The first was to ensure the government's new Environmental Land Management schemes would be accessible, open and flexible for tenant farmers. The second was to look at longer-term changes that would ensure a robust, vibrant and thriving agricultural tenanted sector.

With roughly a third of farmed land in England being tenanted, the sector is vital to the nation's food production and better environmental outcomes.

The aim is for the recommendations to move the tenanted sector towards the following:

• 'collaborative and transparent arrangements which respect the ambitions of both parties and that those arrangements should become the norm
• a relationship of trust, collaboration, and alignment between landlords and tenants with guidance for best practice and recourse for those who do not follow it
• longer-term agreements that allow tenants to diversify and access multiple sources of funding without impacting the landlord's interests, so that both the landlord and tenant benefit and can invest in the productive capacity and environmental health of the holding
• tenant proof schemes developed by DEFRA that are accessible for tenants. This needs appropriate eligibility criteria, flexibility to changes in circumstances, and trust between the government and the tenant farmer
• government schemes for productivity that support investment, with both tenant and landlord involved in a collaborative approach
• a situation where both tenants and landlords understand where they can and cannot plant trees without the consent of the other party, for mutual benefit
• a clear statement from DEFRA on what it wants to see from new entrants to the tenanted sector and how it intends to support them
• private markets for natural capital that provide a new income stream for tenant farmers, supported with clarity for how tenants and landlords can enter agreements together and how benefits from the private agreement are equitably shared
• a range of tax incentives that support and incentivise tenants and landlords to take actions that lead to the above aims
• an update to existing legislation that reflects the current and future demands on land, enables the structural changes needed to achieve the aims above, and provides clarity for practitioners, landlords and tenants alike
• awareness throughout DEFRA of the issues facing tenants, with policies, processes, and protocols to incorporate the tenanted sector into their work on policy and scheme design.'

The forum's inaugural meeting was held in July, and it has started implementing the recommendations of the review. The current priorities are to ensure that tenants have the same access to Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs) as landlords, and to produce a code of practice on socially responsible behaviour for landlords, occupiers, and agents. That code will set out standards of expected behaviour for all in the sector and help encourage more collaborative tenant-landlord relationships.

RICS rural expert working group member Mike Taylor FRICS represents RICS on the group that is developing the code of practice. RICS believes that the publication and widespread adoption of the code will help change attitudes and behaviours in the agricultural tenanted sector for the better.

RICS also contacted food, farming and fisheries minister Mark Spencer to outline our views and highlight our regulatory framework and dispute resolution process for the sector. RICS CEO Justin Young also had a one-to-one meeting with the minister.

The Institution will continue to work actively to support those in the tenanted sector. RICS supports constructive dialogue and a consistent, transparent approach to all negotiations between landlords and tenants. Now more than ever, professionalism matters.

One of the relevant recommendations for RICS as an Institution and its members was that DEFRA must improve the oversight of, and potentially regulate, land agents so their performance and behaviour can then be scrutinised and held to account.

Although RICS has seen no evidence of complaints against members in the rural tenanted sector, the review identified some poor behaviours and highlighted the need for more cooperation between landlords and tenants and those advising them.

RICS takes such reports seriously, and will continue to promote the need for professionalism in the sector and members' obligations to adhere to the Rules of Conduct. The Institution will also consider how to improve existing procedures for the public to make complaints about members.

Part of the remit will also be to examine and strengthen dispute resolution processes in the sector. The department will shortly launch a call for evidence to explore this further, to which RICS will respond.

RICS has already supported the work of the tenant farming commissioner in Scotland and looks forward to working closely with a counterpart in England if one is appointed. The Institution is looking at what is thought to be lacking in current dispute resolution procedures, and will make changes to RICS Dispute Resolution Service (DRS) to ensure all in the sector have appropriate recourse.

Where further work is identified to build on existing initiatives, such as the RICS Simplified Arbitration Service, RICS will take that forward with our panel of rural practice arbitrators and other stakeholders as required. RICS is also currently working on a conflict avoidance procedure for the rural sector that we will publish later this year.

Another recommended power for the role of commissioner is to review and comment on arbitration decisions when arbitrators have been appointed under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 or Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995. RICS considers that this recommendation is problematic because it could challenge the fundamental principle that arbitrations offer a confidential means of dispute resolution.

RICS believes that the three appointing arbitral bodies – ourselves as well as the Agricultural Law Association and Central Association of Agricultural Valuers – have a responsibility to ensure that the arbitrators, and other dispute resolvers they appoint, provide a professional and effective service. RICS will review its procedures for monitoring the experience of parties who use dispute resolvers appointed by the DRS, and will resolve any issues arising.

RICS looks forward to continued engagement with the implementation of the review and the work of the forum. RICS and its members will be proactive in seeking to ensure a thriving agricultural tenanted sector in England and across the UK.