History of Village Life
THE DECLINE OF VILLAGE LIFE & WHAT CAN BE DONE, INCORPORATING CLIMATE CHANGE.
Below is a farm my family rented, it was sold off the Ashburnham Estate in 1979.
Today all these buildings are houses. One could not farm this land now without renewing all the buildings, and they would need to be away from the new homes or residents would complain of the smells.
CONSULTATION IN THE DAIRY INDUSTRY AND FARMING.
One would need to go back a thousand years to see what has developed and caused some of the issues we are facing.
Many years ago, Land was given to the friends of our Kings and Queens. You could say the land was owned by the state, or Estates.
All governments from different colours have destroyed the Estates for a numberof reasons. Some have survived death duties by creating family Trust, even they are being threatened by being evaluated every ten years and taxed on the increased values. We now have investors in land, land values bear no relation to income from the land.
Land owners who don't farm the land, rent the land on short term arrangements, so they can sell up at short notice. Farming and food production is a long term plan. One can't grow fruit or vegetables on a one-year arrangement. Often land on a short term let is: take all you can and put nothing back.
1- I remember when my family had a rented farm on a Large Farming Estate. Tenants paid the rent, but did not borrow any money. We had a mixed farm with a milking herd, bred beef calves, did an egg and potato delivery round with some vegetables when we had them. Our cows produced about 1,000 gallons a year and lived 12 / 14 years. Now we have Canadian Holstein dairy cows that produce 2,000 gallons a year, and not many lived four milking years.
2 - A farmer purchasing land in the mid 1950s would have paid less than £500 an acre, by 2050 (100 years), that land will be over £10,000 an acre at today's value, over the 100 years one acre would not have profited £20,000 from farming. but if they got planning permission on the land they could receive £500,000 an acre, and get away with paying capital gains tax, by using the rollover relief. This should not be allowed. If that's not a capital gain, then there is no such thing.
3 – A farmer in 1965 held a farm walk on his farm by invitation of the local farmers Union. I went along with my father, and we saw a great enterprise. We saw a good dairy herd, beef cattle, a flock of sheep, crops of potatoes and corn,and new seed lays of a number of varieties. The farmer said, my two sons have just left school and we are now a family team: the boys were keen to move mountains. But today, the farm buildings are rented out for industrial use or storage. The land is rented out for summer grazing, and the boys were both working for another business nothing to do with agriculture. The property would have gained in value. They have received rent for the land and buildings. Had they continued farming, the buildings would be full of livestock. They would have grown hay to feed them in winter, and clean the buildings out in the Spring, a lot of work and dirt. But as it is, they have won all round. If we all did the same, we would not be growing food in Britain, but importing all we need.
We should not have to rely on other countries to feed us. We are seeing an increase in world population, and think of the pollution transporting goods
around the globe.
4 - I remember a friend, who rented a small farm for 40 years, in East Sussex. He could, with the money available, buy a house in the village where he was renting a home. But he put that capital in the live and dead stock for the farm business he could rent from an estate. Forty years later, when he wanted to retire, he could not afford a house in the village. So he had to move away from the people he had known over the farm.
The Landlord sold the property.
I was going past the farm a few years later. Some sheep were on the road, so I went into the farm to say there were sheep on the road, and, to see what was going on there.
I was met by a man living in the farm house. The sheep had nothing to do with him. The owner of the livestock lived about 25 miles away. He came over once a week, probably to collect the dead animals. This is not the way to farm or look after livestock.
5 - In West Sussex there were many market gardens & greenhouses. In Kent we had many orchards supplying the wholesalers. They employed a large number of people and fed the South East & London. They earned very little from their work.
When developers offer you £5 million for your land, you are very tempted to take it. Now we are importing the food we could be producing.
6 - People like Sir James Dyson & Bill Gates, should not be buying up land to keep his money safe, while keeping young people out of using farmlandthey own, but create tenancies for new entrants into food production.
They may say they have put millions into Agriculture, but not many people could do that. One needs to remember this big landowner did not make their
millions from farming.
For example, if one owns thousands of acres, they could farm say 300 acres, and then rent out holdings for new entrants into farming, and receive a rent.
7 - The capital we save from our contribution to the European Union, could be used to underwrite loans to young farmers by renting land from these larger land owners. Also I would like to see the Government create a Farming Trust taking over the ownership of council holdings to stop them from being sold off to cover the Local Government shortfall of income.
We need animal welfare to have farmers living on site, not having to travel several miles to check their livestock, and be able to move them from field to field without having to transport them around.
8 - The way to do this would be to reform land ownership and inheritance tax. Farm businesses can be broken up when land is inherited, and brothers and sisters want to be paid out. Land has a non-farming value, where a farmer has to borrow to pay out the rest of the family's beneficiaries.
9 - We have a ruling where the farmer could receive a rent from other members of the family, so they become a part tenant of the holding. and allow young farmers and milk producers to start up or continue in milk production. Farmers are like coal miners, once they leave they don't come back.
The way to do this could be:
10 - Where we have land owners who are only investors living in the farm house, we help them convert a building or build another one for a farmer to live in, and create a tenancy that runs to retirement tor 35 years. Rents would not be based on the market rents but one would work out a rent on the production from the holding.
There is a need to protect existing estates and Council holdings.
11 - We should encourage small milk producers. Dairy farmers are like coal miners, once they leave, they don't come back.
And now we import our coal.
12 - Coming out of the European Union will allow the United Kingdom to reestablish the Milk marketing board or a similar organisation, supporting milk prices.
If the cost of producing milk can be established. One would be paid an arranged sum, for a given amount of milk produced. once they have
produced gallonage or literage, the price would drop, until it was below production price.
We have found, where a producer receives less or eaWe have found, where a producer receives less or earns a few pence a litre, they produce more to get more income, then we have over production. A local balance is required.
For example, we had up to 60 cows producing 5 / 7,000 litres each, we work out a good return, but if they go above the numbers then they get a reduced payment. But over 60 cows start at a different place. Creating a situation where those over 120 cows find having less gets more. One could not destroy those already in the hundreds in a herd, but they may find reducing and helping new people in the
industry an advantage.
If a milk marketing board can't be set up, then some kind of payment could be made to those with less than say, 60 dairy cows.
13 - We have now those farmhouses become country retreats from city capital. Those having land with the property will rent the fields out on
short term agreement. There are a number of these holdings taking up the Government offer to rewild the land, hence, some farmers renting this land
are told they won't have the land in future.
I have witnessed some livestock farmers travelling several miles to take maize silage back to their holdings, creating much traffic gridlock on their
way to their homestead.
We are told we need Eastern European workers to harvest our fruit and vegetables, as we cannot find local people to do the work.
It would be true to say many people with full time jobs can`t take several months off to help with the harvest, it's not that they won't help. Those from Eastern Europe can earn enough in the UK to go back home for the Winter months off and live off their earning from the UK, the answer is to create an environment so we can afford to live in the villages, and earn enough in the planting and harvest time, so one can manage in the Winter
months. It could be easily done. All we need to do is build affordable homes, which would not be rented or market valued on land available on
the farms. As one can find on previous pages.
If one went to the local Agricultural shows in the sixties, one would have seen a large number of small businesses, similar to Merrydown cider, corn merchants, agricultural distribution and repair firms, all family enterprises. I remember there was a small coach company, a garage and petrol pumps, and snob (shoe repair person), men's hair dressers, two grocers, a butcher, a pub, football team, Stoolball team (a Sussex game) & most villages had a cricket team.
That village today has just the pub and the one grocers shop, which open mornings. All the businesses have been sold for houses that locals can’t afford.
One kind person in the village offered some land to build some affordable houses for young people. The parish council said; “there are no young people in the village”. Well, we know why, so it never happened. Villages are becoming a place for old people and retirement places, yet that in itself is creating issues, as isolation and loneliness in villages is a huge problem.
I have seen the second generation make money from the forefathers business. The third generation sell it on for developments, or in some cases sell to a competitor, and we end up with a few large businesses. I recall 20 milk producers in each village, now we find two or three in a District, milk tankers travelling several 100 miles to a depot. We need local distribution centres saving
environmental issues.
For example,There were two men in a prisoner of war camp in Germany, that came from the same village in East Sussex. This camp one would expect was not so bad as some. They went into the kitchens and found some fruit and made some cider. After the war they were sitting in a house, and said, what shall we do now?
They decided to make some cider, going out into the local orchards collecting apples, and made cider in their garage. After some time, they were selling a lot of bottles, and when a building nearby came up for sale, they bought the property. The house they were in was called Merrydown, so they called their new premises Merrydown cider, hence the name became a National name.
So, what should be done?
One solution is to create small farms that one can enjoy and create employment. Instead of paying set-aside or for countryside stewardship, that money could be used to help create new local produce i.e. cheese, a smokery, cutting room for meat, bakery, local pies etc. Local milk dairy and egg suppliers, free range poultry for egg and meats, fruit storage, freezers for storage, and energy crops should be grown. It would be better for 10 farmers to have 40 cows each, rather than to have one farmer with a few hundred; animals would have better care and
attention.
Farmers who have no charge on their land are paying high rents for short term lettings so the price is spread over the whole. The young farmer can’t bid on equal terms for the land. In order to encourage more family farms we should introduce a land tax for those who farm a large acreage. Mixed family farms would be better.
The following table suggests a guideline as to rental value;
English rates:- Grade One - £50 per acre Grade Two - £40 per acre Grade Three - £30 per acre Grade Four - £20 per acre. Therefore if one inherited a farm one would only pay tax equivalent of rental value and this could be paid annually into the National Fund. For example, if one inherited Grade Three land the following table would apply:-1-100 acres - no tax 101-200 acres - 50% of rental value i.e. 200 acres = £3,000 p.a. 201-300 acres - 50% of rental value i.e. 300 acres = £4,500 p.a. over 300 acres - 100% of rental value Where land is let, no tax should be payable.
This would prevent multi-nationals from purchasing and controlling large estates.
New long term farm tenancies of 35 years or retirement should be created,One can still lose one's tenancy for bad farming practice or debt, but growing food to feed the nation is a long term plan. Maybe now we have left the European Union, the money we gave to the EU can be used instead to create small farming enterprises, with the Government underwriting any loan given to those starting out. It would be better to look at land ownership.
Speculators are buying land as a safe place to put their capital, but often don’t farm the land, and rent it out on short term arrangements. Farmers who rent the land don’t live on site, hence live stock are not seen daily.
Create a Community Land Trust in every District by:
1. Abolishing development boundaries.
- Capping development land at 10 times agricultural value maximum
- Every village to have some affordable homes to revitalise village life.
- Trust houses cannot be sold on the open market, they can only be sold back to the Trust at the current cost of production (materials and labour).
2. Invite every Town and Parish Council to select places where homes could be built. Take away the Right to Appeal from developers...No means NO.
3. Build care complexes for older people, to enable them to stay in their community area.
4. Local Councils say they are not able to suggest alternatives to planning applications - this must change.
5. Invite developers to tender for the building work (Developers to gain up to 11% per house. They can turn that capital over three times on one year.)
6. Add a proportionate sum to each home to give to the Town or Parish Council. (This capital to be used to revitalize villages and towns - build a new community hall, enlarge a shop to cater for all local needs which would save people having to travel to larger towns, or possibly where pubs have closed, create a pub, shop and community hall in one development, and create work units.)
7. For example; building 20/30 homes in every village, on land that is not first class food growing land, add £20,000 to each one for the Parish Council. They then could enlarge or build a local shop so they could cater for all the local needs, thus saving families travelling to the towns, and creating traffic gridlock and pollution. This could also be a larger complex in a town setting, with a self sufficient garden to feed the residents
SOME SOLUTIONS
It is said that a third of the world's population go to bed hungry. With the global population now 6 billion, it is estimated it will be 9 billion in twenty years. If we don’t act on pollution and the environment, the population could quickly go down to five billion with mass famine and disease.
Whilst supermarkets promote cheap food, this is short-term gain. Since Eastern Europe has joined the E.U. we find, with cheap labour and unused land in the East, the West will be getting even cheaper food. British farms will be unable to continue in food production, the countryside will become bramble and rabbits. When wages and values rise in Eastern Europe, food in Western Europe will become expensive, and the people will say; why don’t we grow food here? Sadly there won’t be anyone left to grow food, unless we take a long-term view now. Money the UK spent on the EU could be used to help young people into farming, by means of giving them financial help. In order to keep a policy for food security, we need to make producing food a paying enterprise. We would not then need to consider GM crops.
Council owned farms should be transferred to a farming company to stop councils being able to sell them off. There needs to be a minimum price at which producers are paid. Items like milk, could be guaranteed up to a certain number of cows on a holding, thus stopping multi-cow units; we should Create animal welfare, not animal factories. There are too many speculators in forward buying of food, and land investors. A new concept is needed for land use. We are spending £24 billion a year on housing benefits, £34 billion on helping first time buyers to get on the housing ladder, all this could be stopped, and we were paying £34 million a day net, into the European Union; this money should now be spent on underwriting loans to new young farmers.
We are now told to rewild the land for environmental reasons, we can’t eat the environment.
Then we are told there will be payments to plant hedges and get the soil in a better condition...
It was a few years ago, when the European Union paid farmers to take out the hedges and grub out the orchards in the UK. One wonders if those educated folk really know what they are doing sometimes.
There was a time when we made hay as opposed to silage. One cut the standing grass From mid-June to mid-July, those who nested on the ground would have hatched their brew, and the grass seeds would have had time to ripen, so if one moved the crop seeds would drop onto the land, this would feed some insects or reseed the land.
Once we moved to making silage, and cut the grass in May, those nesting birds' eggs got crushed with the machinery, and the seeds are still green.
Now with the large bales, instead of the small square bales, one can make hay much easier, therefore we should consider doing more hay, too help the environment and help with the wildlife.
We appear to have a crisis with HGV drivers and a shortage of goods filling the shops for us. Some may blame Brexit. But what is the real cause?
I remember within three villages, in East Sussex Ashburnham, Herstmonceux & Wartling there were about 50 farms producing milk. There were dairies in Eastbourne, Mayfield and Headcorn, all three are now housing estates.
Today each of those villages have just one farm, with large herds producing milk and the large tanker travels from Herstmonceux in East Sussex to Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. Now, would you like to drive such a vehicle with the traffic on the roads today all that way, even with the cash they are offering to do it? The same with Supermarket HVDs drivers.
If we really are going to save the environment we need local food producing farms, but that can't be done if we continue to allow speculators to buy up land, and let out on short term agreements. If we continue to take in those wanting to come to the UK, we need to address how we will feed them.
We have now those farmhouses become country retreats from the city capital. Those having land with the property will rent the fields out on short term agreement. There are a number of these holdings taking up the Government offer to rewild the land, hence, some farmers renting this land are told they won't have the land in future. I have witnessed some livestock farmers travelling several miles to take maize silage back to their holdings, creating much traffic gridlock on their way to their homestead.
We are told we need Eastern European workers to harvest our fruit and vegetables, as we can’t find local people to do the work. It would be true to say.
Many people with full time jobs can`t take several months off to help with the harvest, it's not that they won't help.
Those from Eastern Europe can earn enough in the UK to go back home for the Winter months off and live off their earning from the UK, the answer is to create an environment so we can afford to live in the villages, and earn enough in the planting and harvest time, so one can manage in the Winter months. It could be easily done. All we need to do is build affordable homes, which would not be rented or market valued on land available on the farms.
The answer to the heavy vehicle driver shortage would be to have small lorries and grow and deliver locally, and not be travelling hundreds of miles to depots and distribution centres.
If we continue to see people crossing the Channel, and helping those from Afghanistan, Then we could have arrivals from Hong Kong I just hope they bring plenty of sandwiches with them.
Where planning permission has been granted, but not been started, we should build some upmarket homes as on the enclosed paper, to pay for the land that has been purchased, then the rest possibly 80% would become affordable with the enclosed design, incorporating self-sufficient garden and exercise areas, and work from home or having a hub for employment of the development.
We are all slaves to the system! We were never taught to be creative to make a change. Our entire lives we are conditioned to listen, obey and hold a 9-5 job. We have a system that was designed not to work for the common person. Freedom is an illusion unless you break out of the system to obtain true freedom and independence.
We seem to be controlled by a few, with large amounts of capital or a state control system that fails. There is a need for enterprise, without paying vast sums in rents or property values.
The cost of rents & mortgages can cause health issues. In 1900 the average person paid 10% of their income on rent, today it’s up to 60%, hence the health issues.
We need a new housing policy.
Rent never ends...
if you can’t afford to buy a home, and you can’t afford to save whilst paying rent. When retirement age comes the government will be paying billions of pounds in housing benefit.
Planning Ahead: Finance, Housing & Retirement
As an example:
Having paid off the mortgage, including interest at say £600/month (starting at age 25), if one was to then go on saving at £300/month for a further 20 years, one would have saved £72,000.
At retirement, if one wanted to take up the Supported Housing Scheme, one could cash in the CLT home for say £140,000 (original price + increased building costs). The Supported Housing Scheme would take, say, 50%, one could still have £70,000 to add to the savings in hand, making £142,000 in hand, for future years.
The Planet and People Coalition
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Registered Office: Cortlandt, George Street, Hailsham, East Sussex BN27 1AE
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