The Agriculture (Calculation of Value for Compensation) Regulations 1978

EXPLANATORY NOTE

These Regulations, which come into operation on 1st July 1978, make provision in respect of England and Wales for calculating the compensation payable to the outgoing tenant of an agricultural holding in respect of the short-term improvements and other matters set out in the Fourth Schedule to the Agricultural Holdings Act 1948, as varied by the Agricultural Holdings Act (Variation of Fourth Schedule) Order 1951 (S.I. 1951/2168) and the Agricultural Holdings Act 1948 (Variation of Fourth Schedule) Order 1978 (S.I. 1978/742). The last-mentioned Order added paragraph 12 to the Fourth Schedule providing a new head of compensation, namely, residual sod fertility value of certain qualifying leys on a holding in a district where it is normal farming practice to grow a succession of tillage crops on the same arable land. These Regulations include provisions for the calculation of that value.

The Agriculture (Calculation of Value for Compensation) Regulations 1969, as amended, which previously made provisions for the calculation of values, are revoked but without prejudice to their continued application in relation to tenancies terminating before 1st July 1978. Apart from minor drafting amendments, Regulation 4 (Reduction of compensation) is similar in effect to Regulation 4 of the 1969 Regulations and paragraphs 1, 2, 4, 9 and 10 of Schedule 1 reproduce the calculation of value provisions of similarly numbered paragraphs in the 1969 Regulations as subsequently amended.

Paragraphs 5 (Liming, including chalking), 6 (Application of purchased manure and fertilisers), 7 (Consumption of corn on the holding), 8 (Growing crops and severed or harvested crops and produce grown on the holding in the last year of the tenancy) and 11 (Acclimatisation, hefting or settlement of hill sheep on hill land) set out new or modified provisions for the calculation of the values of those matters. Paragraph 5 provides for the calculation of the value of liming, including chalking, and includes special provision for the calculation of value where soil characteristics and high excess winter rainfall together are major causes of rapid leaching of calcium from the soil. Paragraph 6 includes for the first time provisions for calculating the values of purchased magnesium and copper and makes different provisions for purchased bulky organic manures and for other purchased fertilisers. Paragraph 7 provides for the calculation of the value of feeding stuffs consumed, but not produced, on the holding, or corn whether produced on the holding or not, by cattle, horses, sheep or pigs, and, for the first time, by all poultry and not, as previously, only by poultry folded on the land as part of a system of farming practised on the holding. Paragraph 8 sets out different methods of calculating the values of growing crops and produce grown on the holding in the last year of the tenancy (other than crops or produce which the tenant has a right to sell or remove) according to whether they are root and green crops normally grown in an autumn tenancy, other crops in an autumn tenancy, autumn sown corps in a spring tenancy or grass and clover seeds sown in a spring or autumn tenancy from which no crop was taken, and also makes separate provision for calculation of the value of severed or harvested crops and produce. Paragraph 11 provides that the value of hill sheep on hill land shall include such amount (if any) as represents the value attributable to the acclimatisation, hefting or settlement of the sheep subject to a maximum of four pounds (instead of two pounds as previously). Paragraph 12(2) sets out the methods of calculating the residual sod fertility value of the excess qualifying leys (as defined in paragraph 12(1) and this differs according to circumstances as described in that paragraph. Paragraph 12(3) imposes a limit on the aggregate of values under paragraph 12(2)(a) and (b) and paragraph 10(2) (face value) in respect of the same ley.

The Regulations apply (except so far as excluded, in relation to the matters in Part II of Schedule 1 to the Regulations, by a written contract of tenancy) whenever the tenancy of the tenant claiming compensation terminates on or after 1st July 1978; in relation to tenancies terminating before that date, the Agriculture (Calculation of Value for Compensation) Regulations 1969, as amended, continue to apply with a similar exception.