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 – 03.12.14 – Good news and bad as stewardship rules are changed
At last we now have some more detail in respect to the new Countryside Stewardship Scheme which is due to replace Environmental Stewardship, the English Woodland Grant Scheme (EWGS) and capital grants from the Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) programme from next year. The October CAP update brought some good news for Environmental Stewardship (ELS, HLS…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 19.11.14 – Converting farm buildings to homes
Now eight months on following the implementation of the April 2014 amendments to the Town & County Planning (General Permitted Development) Order (GPDO), there have been a number of appeals in relation to Class MB, which considers the conversion of agricultural buildings to dwellinghouses as permitted development. Here we look at some recent appeal cases,…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 05.11.14 – The Active Farmer Test – Confirmed
Finally the news many have been waiting in anticipation for has arrived, details of who will qualify as an ‘active farmer’ under the Basic Payment Scheme from 2015. Overall it appears that smaller farmers and smallholders, farming about 20 hectares and below (down to five hectares) will, in the main, be eligible. The first part…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 22.10.14 – Sporting opportunities near Exeter
Some rare opportunities for sport on the edge of Exeter have come to the market with a beat on the lower River Exe which has some of the best salmon fishing in the region and some land adjoining the river with excellent wildfowl shooting. The 233 yards of single bank salmon and trout fishing on…
Read More21.10.14 – ENTITLEMENTS – END OF TRADING SUMMARY
ENTITLEMENT TRADING – 2015 FIRST WINDOW – MARKET SUMMARY – TRADING FORWARD BEFORE JANUARY 2015 This Tuesday saw the end of the first entitlement transfer window for the 2015 Scheme Year. The preceding period was a somewhat uncertain and frantic scramble for vendors looking to offload their surplus entitlements prior to the 21st October,…
Read More15.10.14 – ENTITLEMENT TRADING – 7 day countdown to close of first trading window
With only seven days to go until the end of the 2014 SPS entitlement transfer window, the market is furiously busy with last minute purchasers coming to the market. We are now seeing an influx of purchasers looking for large blocks of Non-SDA entitlements at the current market rates between £125 and £140 per…
Read More13.10.14 – ENTITLEMENT TRADING UPDATE – NON-SDA
OCTOBER ENTITLEMENT TRADING UPDATE – HOSTING & LEASING – PRE 21ST ENTITLEMENT TRANSFERS – HOW WILL CAPIS WORK? – 2015 DUAL USE UPDATE – AUTUMN RPA INSPECTIONS – MILK QUOTA – ACTIVE FARMER TEST ENTITLEMENT TRADING UPDATE – NON-SDA As we move closer to the 21st October transfer deadline, now only 11…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 8.10.14 – Land values in the West
Arable, bare land values as we know have now broken through the £10,000 per acre barrier in the South West. This is for the best land but without any amenity, development or alternative use value. The latest RICS/ RAU Rural Land Market Survey suggests that the average price per acre in the South West is…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 24.09.14 – Dairy farmers hanging on to quota…
Dairy farmers hanging on to quota ‘just in case’ of a change of policy The RPA provisional production figures for August 2014 were released on 6th September and show that UK dairy farmers delivered 1,192.9 million litres of milk, beating all the monthly production records for August since they were first publicised in 1994. This…
Read MoreWestern Morning News – 10.09.14 – Act fast in order to obtain grant funding
With the details of the next Rural Development Programme still being negotiated we are currently in a transitional period running from 1st January 2014 to 31st December 2015. Unfortunately due to the high level of demand for English Woodland Grant Scheme (EWGS) grants under the previous Rural Development Programme there is limited finance available for…
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