News
For over 38 years, Hugh Townsend has been the country's "go-to" commentator on farm quotas and intangible assets sold off-farm. Having become the country's leading and most innovative quota agent he was broadcast to 3.8 million listeners on Radio 4's PM programme, interviewed by Eddie Mayer on the 1st April 2015 – the “Dawning of Europe without Milk Quotas”, click here.In 2016, BBC1 interviewed Hugh Townsend on the future of farming following the Referendum, click here. In 2021 he published the first book of its type “the UK Environmental Credits User Guide” , and more recently in 2024 ITV filmed at one of our BNG Habitat Banks which was broadcast on Monday 3rd June (click here) To view the uncut footage of the interview click here
Hugh Townsend developed the most creative arrangements to promote an efficient market in farm quotas, in the early eighties, including leasing milk quota without land, before the Milk Marketing Board introduced leasing for a part of the milk year. He has represented clients in leading court and arbitration cases successfully defending transfers of milk quota, and developed the new system of second TQ1 forms protecting the transfer of quotas with land.
In 1991, Farmers Weekly published the first sale price index from Hugh Townsend, countrywide, and started to publish farm quota sales and leasing graphs, which can be seen on our Milk Quota & Entitlements pages. Prices for intangible assets are still published weekly from this UK leading Brokerage House.
On BBC television, he has defended dairy farmers who have been taken advantage of by unscrupulous individuals in the farm quota market, and was again on television to comment on the "footballers buy milk quota" rumpus.
In 1990, the firm held the first auction of sheep and beef quota making the market in these new intangible assets and is still the leading BPS entitlement broker in the UK regions following England abolishing their scheme in 2023.
The firm also now sells Biodiversity Net Gain and Nutrient Neutrality units, Woodland and Peatland Carbon, in addition to Water Abstraction Licenses, and holds National Sales by tender every six weeks.
Western Morning News – 27.06.18 – Countryside Stewardship – Hot Tips
The 31st July 2018 deadline (NB. Deadline now amended to 31st August 2018) for submitting applications is fast approaching, and Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier packs and Wildlife Offer packs are arriving by email and post. A few tips which applicants should watch out for. 6th July Deadline for Hedgerow RLE1s Most applicants will need to…
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Farmers Weekly – 09.07.18 – Why careful investigation is vital before taking on a farm tenancy
Tenants taking on long-term farming tenancies need to take the same detailed and wide-ranging approach one does when buying a farm. A case in which tenant farmers were awarded £1.75m should serve as a warning to both tenants and landlords more widely, writes Hugh Townsend, senior partner of Exeter-based Townsend Chartered Surveyors. Find out what happened in…
Read More Western Morning News – 25.04.18 – 2018 RPA Online – New Entitlement Transfer Status Complication
The RPA online computer system is transferring entitlements without knowing if they can be used in 2018. The system has to cope with huge amounts of data, and has built within it rules which enable it to process certain transactions automatically, easing up on staff workloads and enabling most transactions to happen (in theory!) quickly…
Read More Western Morning News – 11.04.18 – Entitlements – Some tricks of the trade
“Internal entitlement transfers” between clients of the same firm of farm consultants/agents Farm consultants and agents are starting to complete their clients’ claims and may wish to trade entitlements between their clients. They adopt different policies as to how to deal with this on behalf of clients, but some will do “internal transfers” between the…
Read More Farmers Weekly comment – 02.03.18 – BPS entitlement values and Active Farmer test
See article on BPS entitlement values down £30/ha on 2016 – here See article on Active farmer test dropped for 2018 – here
Read More Western Morning News – 04.04.18 – The ‘Active Farmer’ Rule Changes
REGIONAL UPDATE The 2017 Omnibus Regulations have now taken effect, resulting in significant changes to the ‘Active Farmer’ regulations, and the way Great British and Northern Irish farmers qualify for the Basic Payment Scheme. The Active Farmer requirement of the Basic Payment Scheme is one of the features of the CAP that has caused the…
Read More Western Morning News – 28.03.18 – English Entitlements – Trading Update
March is traditionally the month where farmers/landowners and their agents start to turn their minds to their BPS claims and to seriously assess what entitlements are needed in order to fully maximise their payment, and trade is beginning to pick up. With the online BPS claim forms now live on the RPA online website, it…
Read More2018 BPS AND ENTITLEMENT TRADING UPDATE – 15th MARCH 2018
ENGLISH ENTITLEMENTS – TRADING UPDATE March is traditionally the month where farmers/landowners and their agents start to turn their minds to their BPS claims and to seriously assess what entitlements are needed in order to fully maximise their payment, and trade is beginning to pick up. With the online BPS claim forms now live on…
Read MoreBPS SCHEME 2018 – ACTIVE FARMER REQUIREMENT DROPPED – 20.2.18
Under the Omnibus Regulation all EU member states have the ability to drop the Active Farmer rule for the Basic Payment Scheme from 2018 onwards. The RPA has today confirmed that England has now dropped the Active Farmer rule for BPS this year. This removes a claimant’s need for the readmission routes or having to…
Read More Western Morning News – 07.02.18 – Countryside Stewardship Scheme – New Wildlife Offers
Since 2015 landowners who wished to carry out environmental stewardship have had to apply for competitive agreements (i.e. limited funding available and only applicants that best met the priorities would be granted agreements) mainly through the Mid Tier Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS) which replaced the Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) scheme. The ELS scheme was non-competitive…
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