FOI release

The Future of the county farm estate within the UK

Case reference FOI2024/01674

Received 6 October 2024

Published 7 October 2024

Request

The purpose of this information request is to gather information on the current and future status of the county farm estate within the UK.

1. How many county farm holdings do you have?

	Number of holdings	Number of acres
Equipped (house, buildings and land)
Non-equipped (buildings and land)
Bare land only

2. What is the current structure of your county farm estate?


Total number of tenants
Average age of tenants
Number of tenants who are new entrants to farming
Number of tenants with no family history in agriculture
Total net income from estate
Total value of estate

3. Please complete the following table in relation of the movement of tenants on the estate over the past 3 years

	Number
New tenancies granted	To existing tenants
To previously established farmers (not from county farms estate)
New entrants to farming
Progression of tenants	To a new farm on county farm estate
To private tenanted sector
Purchased a farm
Retired and moved off estate
Left farming industry but not retired
Unknown

4. What factors do you consider when considering a new tenant for a farm?

5. Have you sold any of your county farm holdings in the last 5 years?

Yes
No

6. If yes, please explain the factors which led to this decision.

7. Do you have any plans to dispose of any of your county farm holdings within the next 5 years?

Yes
No

8. If yes, please explain what factors have led to this decision.

9. Have you used any of your county farms to support wider council objectives e.g. the use of care farms or to support sustainability goals?

10. What do you consider are the five biggest benefits to the county farm estate?

11. What are the five biggest challenges that currently face the county farm estate?

12. What are your future plans for your county farm estate?

We are unable to answer the questions contained within your questionnaire, as Herefordshire Council sold its county farm estate in 2017/2018.

There are no documents for this release.

This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.