The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) has hailed the appointment
of Alan Laidlaw as the first Tenant Farming Commissioner for
England as a major success for its lobbying and as hugely
significant for the landlord tenant sector in agriculture.
TFA Chief Executive, George Dunn, said: “I warmly welcome the
appointment of Alan Laidlaw to be the first Tenant Farming
Commissioner in England. Having worked with Alan previously, I am
sure that he will be thorough, diligent and impactful in this
important role.
The announcement of his appointment highlights both the
importance of the landlord tenant sector within agriculture and
marks a crucial step forward in cementing the industry approved
Agricultural Landlord and Tenant Code of Practice in England.
Alan's appointment will bring focus on achieving better
relationships between landlords and tenants for their mutual
benefit and improvements in the conduct of all parties, including
landlord's agents. The TFA looks forward to supporting Alan in
this vital work.”
The TFA notes that the Commissioner's role will be non-statutory
and he will therefore need to work hard to ensure he has real
influence and impact on a sector which needs to see huge change
in the conduct of relationships between landlords, tenants and
land agents. A survey carried out by the TFA last year found that
30% of tenant farmers felt that they were being bullied or
harassed by their landlords and this rose to 37% by reference to
landlord's agents.
“Bullying and harassment at any level in our sector is
unacceptable but sadly the TFA sees this almost as a daily
occurrence in the job that we do with and for our members.
However, there are also many examples of good practice, and it
will be important for the Commissioner to shine a light on those
situations to draw the contrast with those landlords and
landlord's agents who must improve their conduct,” said Mr Dunn.
One way that the Commissioner could gain real traction would be
to convince landlords to incorporate the agreed Agricultural
Landlord and Tenant Code of Practice into their tenancy
agreements. That could be further enhanced if those landlords
could also be convinced to write into their tenancy agreements
that the Commissioner will be used to adjudicate on any issues of
poor conduct that arise through the course of a tenancy and that
the Commissioner's adjudication would be binding.
“We have already seen some institutional landlords including the
code of practice as a standard term in their tenancy agreements
and it would be an easy win for the Commissioner to see that
practice expanded to other institutional landlords and into the
private sector. Given Alan's previous involvement with The Crown
Estate he will clearly have some intuition into the mindset of
institutional landlords that he can use to his advantage in his
new role,” said Mr Dunn.
No doubt, the Commissioner will be in receipt of a raft of early
cases that will need his careful and wise deliberation.
Some of these cases will be long-standing and difficult.
Indeed, the TFA is anticipating being involved in referring cases
to the Commissioner to review. Although confidential, the way in
which these early cases will be handled by the Commissioner will
have a major influence over the extent to which the role will be
seen as adding value.
Alongside issues of conduct, the Commissioner will also have a
role to consider the way in which disputes are resolved within
the landlord tenant sector in agriculture with a particular focus
on arbitration. The TFA would like to see the Commissioner
pulling together the principal organisations involved in dispute
resolution to determine what improvements could be made to
improve experience and consistency.
“It is vital that we see arbitration becoming less onerous, less
expensive, quicker and more consistent. It is a major limitation
that individual arbitrators are not permitted to see or use the
awards of other arbitrators to assist them in making better
awards themselves. This system operates well within the courts,
so it would be good to find a way to operate it within the realm
of arbitration. It will be important for the Commissioner to find
the time to give attention to this within the terms of reference
DEFRA has established for his role,” said Mr Dunn.
