Cornwall Council could reduce £1.2 billion debt if it sells all its farms
A Cabinet member told a Cornwall Council meeting that the “number one thing” that could reduce its £1.2 billion debt would be to sell off its farms estate
A Cabinet member told a Cornwall Council meeting this week that the “number one thing” that could reduce its £1.2 billion debt would be to sell off its farms estate. Following a long debate by its sustainable growth scrutiny committee, councillors agreed that there should be an inquiry into the future of the estate, which includes 10,800 acres of land and 81 farms.
The farms estate is the council’s single largest land asset and features 1,600 acres between Liskeard and Blunts village, about 1,000 acres between Mitchell and Trerice in Newquay, with the remainder of the estate dispersed across the rest of Cornwall.
The meeting heard that the main aim of the farms estate was to be a first foot on the ladder for people to enter the sector who may not have the ability to farm elsewhere, such as people who are not able to inherit a family farm. Questions were asked about how successful this aim has been.
Jonny Alford, Cornwall Council’s acting head of property, said since a 20-year farms estate strategy was introduced in 2019 some financial issues had arisen, with pressures on capital spending. He said: “The estate needs to be profitable and revenue returns are narrow. Rents do not go up in line with costs, but costs go up in line with inflation.
“Dairy farming, which has been at the heart of the council’s estate, is expensive to deliver on small scale land holdings such as those the council has.” A report to the committee suggested there could be alternative land use for its farms, including the provision of schools, housing and solar farms.
Strategic director Phil Mason told councillors: “Should we continue to have a farms estate, there are shades of grey. It might not be all or nothing. It might be that we reduce it, we enlarge it or otherwise. Like all other landowners, do we want to respond to the council’s current call for sites for housing purposes?”
He recommended that the committee looked for outside expertise for help when considering the future of the estate.
Cllr Andrew Mitchell (St Ives West & Towednack, Independent) said: “The main principle of the farms estate was to bring people into farming and I think that’s really worthy, but I don’t think that’s what our county estates does. After five or maybe ten years, they should be moving on to allow the next opportunity to happen for somebody. I believe that a lot of our tenants have been tenants for 10, 20, 30 years, even a lifetime. I think we missed the mark on bringing that opportunity to the general public to take up farming.
“Can we show we are bringing 30 new farmers into farming? I don’t think we can and I really wish we could.”
Mr Alford said Cllr Mitchell was right to challenge progress through the estate. Since 2019, 12 farms have been re-let, with two tenants having progressed to larger properties and eight new tenants brought in. “The absolute progression off the estate has not been strongly evidential. The opportunities are not always out there for our tenants,” he added.
The officer pointed out one positive for the council in that the authority anticipated gaining around £6 million of capital receipts from its farms in a ten-year period from 2019, but it is currently in advance of that.
There was a split in opinion during the discussion. Cllr Peter Channon (Hayle West, Reform UK) said: “We’re surrounded by farmland – it’s an important part of Cornwall. It’s under an incredible amount of pressure at the moment. If we can make it easier for people to get into farming, that is what we should be doing.”
Fellow Reform councillor Roger Tarrant, who represents Redruth North, added: “There seems to be a significant and valid concern around food security. We’ve gone down in the UK to 47 per cent of food production from 78 per cent in 1984. There seems to be an implied ambition to reduce the county farms and have an alternative use from food production to housing and solar farms. It’s important that we allow availability for food production in our county. Once those skills are lost, they’re sometimes lost forever.
“We’re always arguing that young people can’t stay in Cornwall – we need to keep them in Cornwall. It’s important that we retain the county farms and we don’t come up with an alternative where more housing requires more food.”
However, others questioned the cost of keeping the estate going. Cllr Luke Rogers (St Ives East, Lelant & Carbis Bay, Liberal Democrat) said that although the council should be doing all it can to support the farming sector, “I do wonder how much of this comes at a cost to other sectors and whether the council is propping up one sector when really we should be using that resource for higher resource areas. Is this something that is relevant to today?”
He wanted to know the estate’s turnover, how many people are involved and the cost to the council. “Are we spending the same amount pound for pound in other sectors such as defence, critical minerals and tourism?” Mr Alford said those questions were the whole basis of the review into the farms estate.
Cllr Mitchell added: “When we have a schools estate that has a backlog maintenance programme of something like 100-plus years, for me, not only is buying land for the county estate the wrong priority, I would find it immoral. The 64,000 dollar question, roughly what is the county farms estate valued at today?”
Mr Alford said its worth would depend on different scenarios, which officers would report back to the committee. He added the capital programme for the farms estate is currently £16m, £10m of which has been invested in farmhouses and other work. “If we keep the farms estate at the same size, we will need to come back and seek more capital to keep the investment programme happening,” he told the meeting.
Cllr Rogers responded: “If we’re spending £16m for 80 properties, that’s resulting in about £200,000 per business unit. Is it morally right for us as a council to be investing that amount on all of these businesses when we could be focusing on other businesses?”
Cllr Tim Dwelly (Penzance East, Independent) said his view as the portfolio holder for assets was that the committee had to gather the facts for its review “but we have to take the emotion out of it”. He added: “Sometimes I hear at these debates that it’s as if we’re talking about whether farming will be allowed in Cornwall. That’s not what we’re talking about.
“This is about this local authority owning farms and what it does with them. My own hunch is there might be some new uses for some of the land, but I don’t expect there to be a radical getting rid of council farms. I don’t want people to pretend that’s what’s happening as it clearly isn’t going to be the priority for the administration to do that.”
However, he added: “For those advising the Cabinet on the amount of debt this council owes, the number one thing that could reduce that is to sell the farms off. That’s what I’ve been told privately.
“So I’m not saying colleagues from Reform are taking the view that if you want to cut debt, sell the county farms, but if you were consistent with wanting to reduce debt that would be one of the options. I personally don’t think we should do that, but it’s important we recognise this is a very expensive piece of capital for this council.”
Mr Mason agreed that as the largest land asset owned by the council the farms estate has to be on the table when it comes to considering making savings. He said it was one area the inquiry should look at.
The committee agreed to establish a three-month “task and finish” group to hold an inquiry into the future of the council farms estate.