If you have existing agricultural buildings that are surplus to requirements, you may be able to apply for change of use to housing under the new rules. The small holding adjacent to use, has done that recently and demolished an old industrial unit / workshop and replaced it with a terrace of three houses.
There is some shockingly poorly drafted legislation which is being exploited by wised up landowners recently which says that any old useless tin shed from the 1980s can now be converted into a dwelling as a 'barn conversion'.
TW
Some councils are very indulgent of farmers and landowners and look extra kindly on them.
There are a number of wheezes for getting a dwelling allowed on agricultural land. One we see a lot of here is 'Holiday lets'. That's a commercial development and not a residential proposition, see? But of course nobody knows or checks or cares who is actually living there.
TW
One of the fundamental principles of planning is that the permission goes with the property, not the owner or applicant so personal needs and circumstances should be always irrelevant. You need other ways to get an application through.
TW
Not quite that easy, Tim. However, my grain barn has consent for 3 dwellings of up to 1500ft.2 and I see the developer has just gone back to try and squeeze a smaller 4th. dwelling into the same space.
The existing structure has to be suitable to take the proposed loading. Steel frame barns on farms, built since around 1990 meet a British standard BS 5502 class 2.
Planners hate Class Q and drag up every possible objection. Sustainability otherwise distance to the nearest bus stop is a good one.
That's changed/changing to permit structural reinforcement.
I wouldn't mind so much if farmers didn't insist that they need both direct support (including de facto State insurance against foot and mouth etc) _and_ freedoms such as this licence to coin it from the open market from surplus buildings.
On the one near us, they stated in the planning application that the existing building was in need of repair and it would be cost prohibitive to try and convert. Hence they wanted to demolish it completely and build from scratch *close* to its original location (although very slightly smaller in floor area). That was accepted.
There was a big hoo ha about this a couple of years back.
Oh. Once consent was granted here, I stopped keeping up.
There is a down side for working farms in that they lose the ability to erect buildings under permitted development rights for up to ten years.
Direct support by deficiency payments and latterly CAP has been with us since WW2. Basically, weather, geography, labour cost.... make us expensive food producers compared to America, Argentina etc.
On bovine TB, F&M etc. where compulsory herd slaughter is national policy, I guess it is the only way.
>
Hmm.. I believe only about 50% of barn conversion applications succeed.
Tenanted farms are being taken *in hand* by land owners and then operated by farming contracts managed by land agents. The farmhouse is usually let and the traditional buildings used for light industrial purposes.
Neighbouring farm hosts a brewery:-)
AIUI it's still not black and white. Made as part of the same changes that has allowed your developer to look to fit in a 4th dwelling:
Fair points. And I don't really expect anyone to follow NZ's example. But I do hate the way agricultural land has become for many a tax shelter rather than a business asset.
Many examples of this in the Horsham District.
Local Tomato grower has submitted plans for a new packaging 'shed' with a storage for their forklift truck, but the plans for the building have insulated cavity walls and floors and the 'entrance' for the forklift assumes it will enter and leave fully extended.
And how covenient that design will be 5 years down the line when they apply to turn their redundant farm building into a house complete with full height glass entrance foyer.
Plus freedom from CGT and IHT, plus massive payments made to land owners, just for being the owner.
I'm sure no-one here would dispute that as a desirable minimum specification for a shed.
Waste of a perfectly good shed ...
Owain
Not quite.
CGT is payable but can be deferred or rolled over. IHT is relieved to some extent. Land let on an FBT is zero rated, land let on an AHA secure tenancy is 50% relieved and land farmed in hand is zero rated. However, HMRC valuers have a habit of including *hope value* where farmland adjoins existing housing. The tax relief is only on the agricultural element. The nice thing about farmland is that it can be gifted free of IHT providing the donor lives for a further 7 years.
The massive payment in my case amounts to ?75.00/acre for which I am required to maintain all public rights of way and keep the land in *good agricultural and environmental condition*. Not quite armchair farming:-)
Hmm.. I understand it will shortly be necessary to insulate commercial workshop space for future lettings and existing lets just down the line.
:-)
In article , Tim Lamb writes
Gotta have a Transport Plan :-)
Not an uncommon tactic.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.