Insights & Reports

It has been hard to miss the seemingly constant, upward trajectory of a lot of agricultural commodities within the last 12 months. Let’s look at some of the contributory factors causing this rise.

Rural property Income return was up marginally over the 12 months, in part as a result of new tenancy arrangements, active management was the primary driver of returns, with alternative uses, and the promotion of strategic land counteracting wider market capital value declines.

The former mayor of Bogotá, Columbia, Enrique Peñalosa (Peñalosa in Thomas-Bailey, 2014) wisely identified that ‘children are a kind of indicator species. If we can build a successful city for children, we will have a successful city for all people.’

With farmers and investors’ interests aligning after Brexit and Covid, Bidwells’ Head of Rural Investment, Roland Bull, explains why raising capital from a sale and leaseback on your farm or estate might work for you in 2022.

In a previous article, we outlined the £8.6bn opportunity for private investment into peatland restoration - in Scotland alone. But as the rules and standards around corporate climate action evolve, there is a risk that certain types of nature-based solution are sidelined, because they reduce emissions rather than removing carbon from the atmosphere.

I've been pondering what to do for a blog over the last few months, trying to avoid one about housing need. But when our newly minted (deep breath) Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (SoSfLUH&C?) commented that the data currently used is "probably out of date", I couldn't resist.

To say the Scottish property market has been a rollercoaster ride over the past two years would be an understatement. No-one could have predicted the impact that Covid would have as it emerged in early 2020, followed by market pessimism, then tentative optimism fuelled by our cautious re-emergence, and the subsequent resurgence of the market in early 2021.

In terms of delivering growth that is less about numbers and more about maximising benefits for the area, Milton Keynes Council appears to be making the right noises. But will authorities collaborate to shape development and deliver growth across the Arc that is greater than the sum of the individual parts?

The process of completing heritage assessments is not what it once was. Certain things used to be OK to say, or sufficient for the job. Not now. The margin for error is now so slim, and the structure for justifying your conclusions so well established , that there is little wriggle room. Therefore, the buzz word is 'thoroughness'.

The long-anticipated Draft NPF4 was published for consultation by The Scottish Government yesterday evening (10 November). Given that climate change and the climate emergency are key themes and referenced over 100 times throughout the document, it’s no coincidence that the publication has coincided with the timing of COP26.

The Environment Act 2021 has received Royal Assent at a pivotal time while COP26 is coming to its conclusion. The huge public and parliamentary demand to improve our state of nature has resulted in the UK becoming the first country to set a legal target to halt species decline by 2030.

Both Boris Johnson and Michael Gove made Tory conference speeches pushing housebuilding on brownfield sites up this Government’s agenda. With funding for regenerating brownfield land announced in last week’s Budget. Alison Wright looks at whether these measures go far enough.