Communities missing out on community farm benefits

Countryside charity CPRE has said that council-owned county farms are in terminal decline, which means future generations of young farmers won’t benefit from these wonderful assets.

Established at the end of the 19th century to provide a way into farming for young farmers, the decline of county farms is highlighted with the area of county farms in England falling by over half from 426,000 acres to just under 209,000 acres since the late 1970s – predominantly as a result of privatisation, austerity and short-term thinking by governments and councils.

More than 15,000 acres of council-owned farmland has been lost in the past decade alone; with 60 per cent of this land sold off in the past two years.

The key findings from Reviving county farms report shows that: more than 50 per cent of county farm estates have disappeared over the past 40 years; almost 60 per cent of county farm land sold since 2010 has been in the past two years; and austerity, coupled with a sense that county farms are ‘a thing of the past’, and an unwillingness by some councils to innovate to develop new income streams or business models, is driving the decline of county farms.

Furthermore, the research reveals that councils which have taken very different approaches, leading them to protect and even expand their county farm estates, have yielded positive results, with county farms deemed to have the potential to play an important role in addressing the climate emergency and also deliver benefits to local communities, such as providing locally-grown food for near-by schools.

Seven out of nine councils that responded to the survey gave details of environmental and social benefits provided by their county farms, ranging from tree planting, to local education initiatives, to supporting new farmers.

Graeme Willis, agriculture lead at CPRE, said: “Whitehall Farm is a great example of a county farm having an economic, environmental and social impact. Our research shows that the number of county farms in England alarmingly continues to plummet, at a time when these wonderful assets should be protected, and invested in, to ensure they’re available for future generations.  

“CPRE is calling on the new government to introduce legislation to stop the sale of county farms and to give them a new purpose. A package of measures and new funding to enable councils to enhance, invest in their estates and better promote them is urgently needed. CPRE wants to see county farms recognised locally and nationally for their potential to address the climate emergency and deliver wider public benefits to meet the needs of their communities.”