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The Government’s revised planning policies offer opportunities for landowners and developers to create more homes more quickly – without compromising on the provision of essential infrastructure or abandoning high quality design.
Handing over control of the Escrick Park Estate in Yorkshire to his son, Beilby, was “quite a challenge,” Charlie Forbes Adam admits in the latest Estate Matters podcast from KOR Communications.
How do organisations and individuals communicate with neighbours, stakeholders and the wider public in a media environment that is fast-changing and, in many cases, fracturing?
Environment Secretary Steve Reed has accepted he owes landowners an explanation for The Labour Government’s decision to scrap 100% to agricultural inheritance tax relief after promising a year ago there would be ‘no change.’
How things are and how things look can be two radically different things.
But managing the way things look to people is a critical skill for a government engaged in bringing about change.
And the optics following the introduction of a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural assets worth over £1m, introduced in last month’s Budget, are terrible.
It doesn’t matter how many Treasury number-crunchers line up to tell the rural community that the change will affect just a small number of farming families, the message could not be any clearer to those affected.
The management of the nine estates spread across England that make up the land holdings of The Ernest Cook Trust is carried out with a clear focus on the Trust’s primary purpose as an education-based charity.
Many farmers and landowners thought they’d had a raw deal from the Conservatives and hoped for better from Labour.
In the first Labour Budget for 14 years, delivered on Wednesday (Oct 30) many will have felt let down once more.
There is a good story to tell about the production of ‘green gas’ – and landowners and farmers producing the raw material at the start of the process can be proud of what they do and should be ready to talk about it, says Philipp Lukas, Chief Executive Officer of Future Biogas.
With so much asked of them, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to suggest modern landowners should be afforded some respect – admiration even.
Creating affordable housing that is no different in quality to homes built for open market sale is a matter of huge pride for the Duchy of Cornwall at its two high-profile developments, Poundbury in Dorset and Nansledan in Cornwall.
Duchy Estates Director Ben Murphy tells the latest episode of KOR Communications’ Estate Matters podcast that more than a third of the homes built at Poundbury, the Duchy’s community on the edge of Dorchester where work began more than 30 years ago, are affordable.
As the nation marks Back British Farming Day this month (Wednesday Sept 11) all would seem to be well in the world of agriculture. Happy customers, after all, mean happy businesses.
Yet anyone who farms will tell you that is not the case. All is not well. Farm incomes are down, farm confidence has crashed and while the new Labour government has outlined broad support for farming, external factors - from Brexit to extreme weather - are impacting on the sector as almost never before.
Farmers must be valued for managing the landscape and protecting and enhancing nature as well as for producing food, if wildlife-depleted Britain is to improve its environment and continue to feed its population.
That’s the message from Molly Biddell, Head of Natural Capital at the Knepp Estate in Sussex, a trailblazing 3,500-acre rewilding project which abandoned traditional farming 20 years ago and has become one of the UK’s most biodiverse nature reserves.
Specialist PR and communications for housebuilders might not seem, at first sight, to be a top priority
Yet strategic communications, delivered consistently throughout the whole housebuilding operation are key to educating, engaging and enticing target audiences, as well as meeting business objectives.
The Conservatives’ decision to effectively scrap housing targets has been reversed and councils must now produce detailed plans with proposals about how they will deliver the extra homes – or face government intervention.
CLA President and Cornish rural estate owner Victoria Vyvyan believes the new Labour Government and its Defra team are listening to voices from the countryside in essential areas of policy, including planning, farming and energy.
Landowners have, over centuries, played their part in powering Britain, from providing the sites for coal mines to growing timber and operating windmills and water wheels.
In more recent years, however, the centralisation of energy generation and its distribution across the country has distanced much of rural Britain from the business of producing the power we all need…
KOR Communications’ podcast, Estate Matters, is celebrating its first anniversary after a remarkable twelve months with guests providing insights across the rural and development sectors, from farming to journalism, politics to housing.
It’s no accident that, just hours after the Labour Party unveiled its election manifesto, with big plans to fast-track planning applications and build 1.5 million new homes over five years, it also issued a pledge to preserve the countryside.
Minette Batters led the National Farmers’ Union during the most tumultuous times in decades for British agriculture, as the nation faced Brexit, the Covid pandemic and the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
What are the big issues that rural voters, including landowners, farmers and rural estate owners, will want to hear about from politicians, as the General Election date draws closer?
Businesses and individuals with a reputation to protect need to put robust plans in place to deal with threats that can damage their name or brand.
The latest challenge for the men and women who make their living producing food and caring for the landscape looks like it is coming from supermarkets concerned about the environment and the ability of the soil to keep on producing food.
Charlie Courtenay, barrister, parliamentarian and proprietor of the 3,500-acre Powderham Castle Estate in Devon, says he sees the business as an 800-year-old start up social enterprise with the potential for long-term sustainable growth.
We are looking for an enthusiastic Account Executive with a passion for social media and PR, to join our experienced and friendly Exeter-based team.
A survey of more than 1,000 people living in rural England and Wales has found that a lack of affordable homes in the countryside is the most pressing issue facing their communities.
Rural Estates can be ‘heroes’ in helping to reduce the impact of climate change – but they need to talk about what they are doing and engage with their communities.
The scrapping of tax relief worth an estimated £300m a year to holiday homeowners who let their properties and the extension of Agricultural Property Relief (APR) to cover environmental projects are two announcements in the Spring Budget that will impact on rural businesses.
A planned mass trespass on a Dartmoor Tor by Right to Roam protesters was called off last month (February) because of bad weather. Campaign group leaders took the sensible decision to cancel because of the risk of damaging the land in boggy conditions – and the potential threat to protesters scaling a Dartmoor Tor in a storm.
Unveiling a new policy that they promise will “turbocharge” building homes on brownfield sites, the Government has announced a major shake-up of planning rules to, they insist, “boost housebuilding while protecting the Green Belt.”
The MP for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, who spent nine years as a Minister at Defra, rising to become Secretary of State in 2020, makes the prediction in a remarkably frank conversation with KOR Communications’ podcast host Anna Byles in the latest episode of Estate Matters.