The Farmer's Planning Podcast

Mastering Farm Building Permissions

• Guy French • Season 2 • Episode 5

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Get ready to navigate the maze of farm building permissions with experts Guy and Mal from Foxes Rural, who join us to share their wealth of experience. Discover how to unlock the potential of permitted development rights, allowing for up to 1000 square meters of new buildings every two years, and learn the savvy strategies to construct multiple edifices within this period, even across different land parcels. Our conversation ventures beyond the blueprint, contemplating the impact of building close to roads or airports and how to maximize your rights before any policy changes.

This episode is a treasure trove for farmers and those interested in agricultural development, as we discuss the intricacies of securing livestock building development rights and the benefits of choosing the right materials to satisfy even the most discerning planning officers. With practical advice from Guy and Mal, uncover how to employ permitted development rights effectively, from farm shops to worker accommodations. The art of 'banking' permissions for future projects and the clever use of land to fully utilize allowed floor areas biennially are just a snippet of the insights waiting for you. Join us and empower your farm with the structures it needs to thrive.

Speaker 1:

Hi, I'm Guy from Foxes Rural.

Speaker 2:

I'm Mal from Foxes Rural and we are bringing you series two at the Farmers Planning Podcast.

Speaker 1:

We're both directors here at Foxes Rural and we've got lots of planning knowledge and updates for your farm. Welcome to episode five of the Farmers Planning Podcast, and today's topic is new farm buildings. So there are two types of planning routes to obtaining permission for new farm buildings. You've got the permitted development route, which farmers are most commonly aware of and is referred to as the 28-day notice route, and there's also the route of full planning permission. So, mal, give me some examples of types of farm buildings that you've achieved permission for in the last year.

Speaker 2:

Over the past year, we've achieved planning permission for a wide variety of buildings in a wide variety of places. These buildings are obviously the backbone of any farm business and the continuing construction of them is important to any business. When looking at farm building, you need to be careful that if it is 25 meters from a road and that if you are within three kilometres of an airport, you will need to go through the full planning route. Under permitted development rights, you're allowed up to a thousand square metres every two years. This is a really good cycle to get undertake on your farm, because you can start with a grain building, follow it up with a straw building and then follow it up again with a machinery or workshop building. Within this cycle, you can fulfill all your square meterage and it expands your farming infrastructure.

Speaker 1:

So certain things that we always look at with permitted development rights is making sure that you're using them to their full potential. So every two years you can obtain it, like Mal said, a thousand square meters. But there's a government consultation out last September which is proposing to increase that to 1500 square meters. So keep a close eye on that and there are other things as well, so you don't have to just build the thousand square meters within the two years. You can spread that out over various buildings within that two year period. But it's also worth noting that buildings that haven't been built or completed Somehow. I just want to talk through some worked examples. Could I, as a farmer, put a building in the middle of a field?

Speaker 2:

Obviously, it depends on the need and the reasonably necessary. We wouldn't recommend putting it in the middle of a field, but if it needed to be 25 metres away from a road and that's the only place it could go, then you'd have to justify it as such.

Speaker 1:

And one of the things that we get asked quite commonly is can I put a building away from my main farm holding?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. You can spit up your holding according to the land parcel, so you could be building one building on a parcel and then a second building on a different parcel, and they would both achieve permitted development rights as their separate holdings.

Speaker 1:

So most of the time it's looking at what you actually need the building for and is it reasonably necessary. So if you've got a block, say, of 500 acres at stand alone, or even 50 acres at stand alone, it's quite likely it would justify a building in its own right because that block of land is likely to need that storage. And what we're seeing more often with farmers is that they want to try and reduce the labour on farms, reduce their overheads. So they'll try and put barns closer to parcels of land to reduce the labour requirement when the combine's running at harvest time. So rather than put lots of grain tractors and trailers on at harvest and take it back to a central point, they'll build a building on a separate parcel of land which can then serve that block of land in its own right. So a lot of the time it's just appraising your holding, looking at the various land parcels and then getting us to identify what may or may not apply to permitted development rights. Now you quite often get asked a question about a certain thing. What's that?

Speaker 2:

Farmers often ask me whether Alin II is a different sorted development to a whole building. The answer is no. You can apply for both under permitted development rights. What I would say, though, is you're more like if you apply for a whole building, you get more floor space for that one application than you do on Alin II, but obviously it depends on the need and what the building is going to be used for.

Speaker 1:

And when you're building the building you need to think of things like the design. So whether or not that you you build it high enough that you can pull on Alin IIs at a later date, because obviously the cost of the construction of the Alin II is quite often less and even if it's not Alin II, it might just be that you pull another portal frame off the side of that building.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. Buildings with an eaves height of seven metres are not unusual and the planners don't often see that as a problem when applying.

Speaker 1:

And our main limitation with permitted development rights is making sure that we're within 12 metres, so anything over 12 metres wouldn't benefit from permitted development rights.

Speaker 2:

But a 12 metre building is very tall indeed and it's very, very rare that I get asked for a building that high.

Speaker 1:

So if I've used up all my permitted development rights of my 1,000 square metre building within my two-year period, does that mean I can't build another building within that two-year period?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely not. You can always apply full, full planning. It will be go out to consultation and you will need to present that there's a reasonable need and there may be other considerations in that, such as residential amenity or whether there's a grade two listed building nearby. But usually agricultural need is one that is supported by planners.

Speaker 1:

And if I go down the full planning route, what extra things am I likely to encounter compared to permitted development?

Speaker 2:

One of the main issues is presenting that there will be no damage or there will be no impact ecologically, and also the parish council often comments, and that sometimes neighbours can comment, but, that said, councils support agricultural businesses. Landscaping can also be an issue and we can mitigate against that by presenting a landscaping plan which includes planting and screening to lessen the impact on the landscape. There are grants available for this as well, which is very helpful. Government policy local planning policy also looks at agricultural buildings. Most councils provide policy on agricultural buildings that are supportive.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and although it's supportive, it's still open to interpretation.

Speaker 1:

So it's compared to the permitted development route, which is much more prescriptive.

Speaker 1:

The planning policy is much more open to interpretation and there might be a conflicting policy within a local plan compared to permitted development.

Speaker 1:

What we find quite commonly with applications under permitted development is councils misinterpret the definition of what's reasonably necessary for agriculture.

Speaker 1:

So if we have a parcel of land which meets the criteria of five hectares or more and you're undertaking an agricultural operation, the odds are that falls within the definition of being reasonably necessary for agriculture. We've had quite a few cases in the last year where local authorities have said, oh, that's not reasonably necessary for agriculture, which is factually incorrect. Because if we're undertaking the definition of agriculture within an agricultural operation on that land and we've got a need for agricultural use on that land, so if we're making hay or we're cropping sweet corn or something like that, as long as we're undertaking an agricultural operation, and that does fall within the reason of being necessary agricultural route. Something else that comes up quite a lot with the permitted development route is mixed use of holdings and planners suggesting that when you've got diversification like a livery or commercial lets, that that's then not an agricultural unit, which again is incorrect, and Mel's just going to run through a couple of examples of that.

Speaker 2:

So we've actually dealt with an application whereby the planning officers felt that because there was a mixed use going on site, it didn't meet the requirements Within the legislation. There is no stipulation that the holding has to be solely agricultural. So when this happened, we went back to the council to tackle them on this and, failing that, you can go to planning inspectorate. We have done this and we won because the planning inspector agreed with us. Although the site was mixed use, the building was reasonably required for the activities going on on the site.

Speaker 1:

And there was an example with a scaffold yard wasn't there, where you ended up with three applications and the council still refused it because the client had a scaffold yard in their farm and you ended up taking that to appeal and what happened there?

Speaker 2:

We succeeded and the planning inspector upheld our appeal and said well, yes, we can see that there are crops growing on the site. There is no structure, no infrastructure for storing those crops on site. And we won.

Speaker 1:

And I also think something else that comes up quite often is planners understanding the different types of crops that farmers are growing. So there are different yields. So sometimes your wheat may yield 50% more or 50% less, or you may change your cropping so you need to segregate the crops, or you may be growing new crops, and all things like that do help to increase the floor area requirements of the building. And this is permitted development, so it don't need to be presented in the right way. As long as it's reasonably necessary and we can justify why it's reasonably necessary for your farm, then you would continue to benefit from those permitted development rights. So another type of building that we commonly get asked about is livestock buildings. Mel, can I get permission for a livestock building using my permitted development rights?

Speaker 2:

If a building is being used for livestock, it cannot be within 400 metres of a third party dwelling, so someone who's not associated with the building. But that doesn't prevent you from putting them up. You can also use your full planning route to achieve your livestock building on your holding.

Speaker 1:

Okay, thank you, and tell me a little bit more about the design of buildings. What type of materials are commonplace on an agricultural building?

Speaker 2:

Well, most buildings are clad in steel box profile with pre-stressed concrete panels around the base to give it strength and increase the floor area for storing your crops. But livestock buildings are commonly used with a Yorkshire boarding and these materials are commonplace across the county, across the country. If your building looks like a house then a planning officer might be sceptical about its current use and potential future uses. But as long as the building is agrarian in appearance, so rectangular, with the common materials, there shouldn't be any issue with the design.

Speaker 1:

And a couple of types of application that we've been successful with using permitted development rights are new farm shops, new farm offices, farm worker accommodation. So if you've got temporary student accommodation, that would meet permitted development rights, but we'd have to appraise all of those on an individual basis. So, yeah, there's lots of opportunities then for new farm buildings, and we're constantly seeing an increase in demand. But you must use your permitted development rights, because we just don't know how long they're going to stay for on farms and, whilst the government are proposing an increase in the floor area, you need to make sure that you're using them. You've got up to five years to be able to build your building, so we quite often recommend banking those permissions to make sure that you've got them under your belt, so when you actually come to doing the building, it's not last minute.

Speaker 2:

In summary, our takeaway on this is maximise your holding by developing buildings on different parcels of land and maximising the floor area in each. Remember you're allowed up to a thousand square metres every two years. So if you had two holdings, that would be two thousand metres squared.