Unhappy tenants of the National Trust
FARM tenants of the National Trust have expressed their dissatisfaction with the way many say their landlord is failing to allow them to farm in a commercial way.
From its opposition to the badger cull on Trust-owned land to its increasing emphasis on prioritising enviromental targets rather than the production of food, the Trust is facing a range of complaints from its farming tenants.
One South West tenant of the Trust, who runs a mixed farm, told the Western Morning News this week that he was fed up with being prevented from farming the land he rents in the way he would like. “It has been getting worse,” he said. “It’s as if the National Trust don’t actually want farmers on their farmland.”
Farmers Weekly this week reported similar concerns from Trust tenants across the country. One in the North West told the magazine that the Trust was increasingly meddling in aspects of farm management that he believed should be his to decide.
“They don’t seem to have an overarching plan, they’re always trying new things – usually environmental ideas, not for productive agriculture – and don’t seem to know what’s best,” the farmer said. “We have presentations on mob grazing and min-till and then the next one will be on deep ploughing.”
Another tenant in the South West said he had been asked to switch away from mixed farming to move to a rewilding project. He said the Trust told him they saw no future for a mixed family farm on the holding, Farmers Weekly reports.
Chris Cardell, a tenant farmer from Grampound in Cornwall is the National Farmers Union’s tenants forum chairman. He told Farmers Weekly: “Farmers are passionate about doing their bit for the environment, but some of these proposals are quite extensive and could drastically affect the productivity and viability of the holdings.
“The NFU does support environmental outcomes, but they should be carried out in negotiation with the tenants and with a flexible approach.
“It’s clear that the Trust is dealing with financial difficulty as a result of Covid-19, but it is important they maintain tenanted farm holdings that are viable and produce rental income.”
The National Trust owns more than 630,000 acres in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – 60% of it let as whole farms to tenant farmers. In its advice to would-be tenants on its website the Trust says: “We rely on hundreds of farm tenants to manage our land in ways that support our environmental and aesthetic aims.”
And it stresses that if would-be tenants want to take on a National Trust owned farm they should understand and preferably share its aims. “For instance, a true and demonstrable commitment to the natural environment is crucial,” it says.
Farmers say they too are committed to the natural environment, but are running food-producing businesses and need to be given the freedom to balance the needs of the farm and making a living with the needs of nature. As farm subsidy moves away from land payments the Trust says it backs the new Environmental Land Management scheme which rewards nature-friendly farming.