County Farms Estate Policies

Please use the navigation on the right to view the suite of policies.

Management Policy

The Council will continue to manage the county farms estate with the following objectives:

• As an investment, to generate income and capital receipts
• To support the rural economy, by providing opportunities for new farmers to earn a living in the countryside by farming or through diversified farm enterprises.

The estate will assist the Council to deliver specific projects under its Service Objective 13, "to protect an sustain the environment". It will also contribute towards targets under its service Objective 14, "the development of the economy". The Council will continue to identify opportunities to use the estate to deliver other policy objectives. Examples include:

• As an educational resource
• As a vehicle for the delivery of improved public access and healthy walking
• As a major agent for conservation
• As a provider of rural employment opportunities.

Tenants are encouraged to co-operate and diversify, to sustain their businesses through an appropriate management regime.

Opportunities to provide sites for affordable housing from the estate are to be identified and promoted. In addition, the Council will identify sites suitable for key (retiring) workers or buildings suitable for conversion. It will seek partnerships with registered social landlords, so that affordable housing can be provided to enable the Council to meet its statutory obligations to retiring farm tenants.

NPS is developing 5 and 10 year management strategy plans for each estate, to demonstrate how each can contribute to the Council's financial and non-financial objectives.

The county farms database and GIS are being developed to provide complete records for the more effective management of the estate, for example by encompassing the asbestos register and insurance records.