Knight Frank's Rural Bulletin Winter 2009/2010
Date : 21 January 2010
Farmland Market – Land values end decade on record high
Does the new decade herald a new attitude to farming and the countryside from the government? For once the initiatives coming out of Whitehall seem largely positive. So far this year we have seen a new twenty-year vision for food and farming that pushes agriculture up the political agenda, while the announcement of a supermarket ombudsman suggests that the growing power of the retailers has at last been recognised. Even the latest reform of the planning system looks as if it could be helpful to rural businesses. A looming general election might partly answer the question and talk is always cheap, but the real challenges for agriculture – volatile commodity and input prices and an increasing environmental burden, not to mention the imminent reform of the Common Agricultural Policy – will remain whoever wins power. It looks set to be another interesting decade. If Knight Frank can be of help in any way you can find contacts for our wide variety of rural service lines on the final page of this bulletin.