Land Partnerships & LandShare

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Land Partnerships - update 


We're writing to update you on our plans following last month's Land Partnerships Seminar, at Dartington Hall.

We think the ideas raised during and after the seminar form a clear 'Agenda for Action', and we have summarised this in the attached document. 


Our most immediate plans are to:

 *   Produce a 'Land Partnerships Handbook'
 *   Lobby for a set of regulatory reforms, to smooth the way for Land Partnerships
 *   Meet again, later this year, in Oxford. 


Please do get in touch if you have any thoughts on this, or if there are ways in which you can help.


An Agenda for Action 

Land Partnerships are mechanisms which allow landowners and new farm entrepreneurs to club together to create new land enterprises. We take an approach to diversification where landowners progressively parcel out land for new, independent, land based businesses, with the aim of building up a cluster of complementary enterprises. Land Partnerships build on a heritage of land tenure arrangements, from modern joint ventures and Farm Business Tenancies, back to medieval commons and usufruct rights. But, with an emphasis on entrepreneurship and industrial symbiosis, they provide fresh opportunities to unlock new types of innovation in the way the work with land. 


The promise of Land Partnerships lies in the benefits it brings to all parties. They provide the landowner with a mechanism for diversifying their landholding, whilst at the same time avoiding many of the risks and liabilities associated with establishing a clutch of new businesses in-house. For new entrants into land enterprise, partnership arrangements can provide a way around the high costs and intransigence of land markets. From a wider
perspective, a well-planned cluster of land enterprises has the potential to manage natural resources more efficiently, and has the complexity required to penetrate local markets with a wider range of products. This could result in the sort of resilience, flexibility, and increased emphasis on localisation that our communities will need if they are to cope with future challenges and uncertainty in the food system. 


In December 2011, Dartington and LandShare convened a national seminar on land Partnerships, which drew together expertise and experience from around the country, and charted an exciting path forward. This covered the need to bring together existing know-how and experience; push for adjustments to regulatory frameworks, and perhaps most importantly, provide landowners and land entrepreneurs with the information and confidence they need to take action. 


What we plan to do now 

Our seminar at Dartington set a clear plan of action. We will now: 


1.    Establish a Strategy Group of key organisations to guide, support, and endorse our work. This will include organisations involved in the Land Partnerships seminar, plus a small number of other invitees. (winter 2011) 


2.    Produce a 'Land Partnerships Handbook'. This will be a short how-to guide, to set out the basics for landowners and their potential land partners. It will summarise practical know-how, legal and tax technicalities, and will present working examples. To make this happen we will seek endorsement and financial backing from organisations represented on our Strategy Group, and other influential bodies. Preparation, launch, and dissemination of the report will by co-ordinated by LandShare and Dartington. (spring/summer 2011) 


3.    Pursue a Lobbying Agenda. Our seminar identified two key policy areas that might help smooth the way for new land partnerships. These were: (1) opportunities through CAP to support the establishment of land partnerships - a 'Social Stewardship Scheme'; and (2) adjustments to inheritance tax regulations, to prevent them creating disincentives for landowners to allocate land to partner enterprises. Our Strategy Group will develop and refine these agendas, and we propose to enlist support through policy contacts, and through promotion opportunities such as the launch of the Land Partnerships Handbook. (spring 2011 onwards) 


4.    Create Opportunities for Partnership. An inherent part of the Partnerships approach is to cross the usual boundaries between sectors, and bring people together to work in coalition. Our first seminar was part of this, and we plan to re-convene for another Land Partnerships event in Oxford late in 2011. We expect one theme for this to be the creation of a new platform or mechanism forlandowners and land entrepreneurs to make contact. (autumn 2011).