Wear sunscreen

The NHS “Cover Up, Mate” message particularly applies to farmers here in the West Country.
It is a rough, tough industry but workers who spend long periods of time outdoors are urged to protect themselves against the sun this summer because of the dramatic increase in skin cancer across the south of England.

Farmers, builders, sportsmen and gardeners are all being targeted by NHS England South’s Cover Up, Mate campaign because of their prolonged exposure to the sun – and men are a particular focus because research indicates that they are much less likely than women to slap on the sunscreen.

Latest statistics from Cancer Research UK show that since the late 1970s, skin cancer incidence rates have more than quadrupled in Britain. The increase is larger in the male population where rates have increased by 544 per cent, compared to 263 per cent in women.

Public Health England say that in the South West there was a 31.9 per cent rise in incidence of malignant melanoma between 2009 and 2014, from 1,444 cases to 1,906 cases. There was also a 14.5 per cent rise in mortality from malignant melanoma, from 248 deaths in 2009 to 284 deaths in 2014.

NHS England South West medical director Caroline Gamlin said: “Being outdoors is clearly crucial for farmers, builders, gardeners, Post Office workers and others, but there are simple steps can be taken to lower the risk of skin cancer and be sun safe.

“Men in particular need to take much more care. They need to use at least factor 15 sunscreen and apply it generously on all exposed skin – not forgetting their necks, ears and bald patches.”

National Farmers Union South West Regional Board chairman, James Small, who farms on Mendip, said: “Working in the rough, tough world of farming, we often want to brush things off and just get on with the job, but there are times when that kind of resilience can come back and bite you and this is one of those.

“We owe it to ourselves and our families to take the risk of skin cancer seriously and above all if we are bothered by something to not dismiss it, but get it checked out.”

Top sun safe tips include:
•    Use at least factor 15 sunscreen in the sun and plenty of it

•    Apply sunscreen to all exposed skin – don’t forget your neck and ears and your head if you have thinning or no hair

•    Wear sunglasses and a hat

•    Take particular care if have fair skin, moles or freckles, red or fair hair, or light-coloured eyes.

So as harvest is just getting under way and hopefully the sun will be shining throughout the rest of the summer, farmers here in the South West need to take heed of this health hazard and I for one will be dusting off my hat to cover my head where the skin appears to be relentlessly healing over my hair.

James Stephen MRICS FAAV
Partner
Rural Practice Chartered Surveyor, Wells
T: 01749 683381
E: james.stephen@carterjonas.co.uk

A future for small family farms in the UK?

Is there a future for small family farms in the UK?  That is the subject of a report commissioned by the Prince’s Countryside Fund and the answer appears to be yes for some but life will continue to be tough for all.

One of the questions we need to address first is whether the survival of such farms really matters. Certainly advocates of small family farms make a strong case for the positive contribution they make in local communities and the environment.

The report explains that the relationship between farm size and the environmental and social benefits they may bring to the countryside is highly complex.  As a result, in some instances where farm size, farm type and the farmer’s attitude and behaviour all interact favourably, this can result in a very positive role for small farms  - but by implication this is not always the case. 

The report also highlighted how complicated it is to even define what a “small family farm” is because the term encompasses a whole range of structures from retirement holdings, lifestyle farms, part-time farms to “main living farms” and because of this variety there will be a range of futures for the different types.

The report recognises there is not necessarily a future for all small family farms and explains that there are powerful economic forces driving change in farm size and structure - and little can be done about this. However, the report does say there are initiatives that can improve the resilience of a small farm.

These include the need to improve farm management skills and performance through targeted and co-ordinated advice and training, some of which should be provided by farmers themselves, mentoring others to improve their skills.

Other important challenges include finding ways to shorten the supply chain so farmers can gain a larger share of the value of the end product, which is particularly important for small farms where there are limited opportunities to take advantage of economies of scale.

Also, there should be initiatives to encourage new entrants and this raises a whole variety of issues surrounding succession planning and helping older farmers to retire with dignity.

Overall the report highlighted there is no “one size fits all” answer to the challenges that face the huge diversity of small farm businesses dotted around the countryside. 

However, what was also clear is that these farms provide a very important role in the structure of our agriculture and wider rural communities whose loss would be a huge detriment to Britain.   

James Stephen MRICS FAAV
Partner
Rural Practice Chartered Surveyor, Wells
T: 01749 683381
E: james.stephen@carterjonas.co.uk

Don’t frighten the horses

Commercial property rarely makes for mainstream headline news and we’re thankful lfor that as we quietly get on minding our own and our clients’ business. We occasionally stick our head above the parapets at either end of the year with the annual round of reviews and forecasts but that’s about it.

At the outset of this year, commercial property professionals and pundits were in broad agreement that yields had most definitely peaked and that the volume of transactions we’d been enjoying were unsustainable and that total returns were set to fall – my own firm pegged the fall to 8.8 per cent. So far so predictable in Q1 and Q2 2016 then.

However, before the third quarter of the year had properly got underway, commercial property came crashing in to mainstream media headlines for five days in a row and not in a good way. I say ‘commercial property’ but what actually made the news was the suspension and closure of a number of funds which were invested in commercial property.

It was the funds that were falling down, commercial property is still standing. Alongside other property interests, thankfully. Expert property commentators and analysts were - and still are - at pains to point out that a commercial property fund is an investment vehicle and one not for the faint-hearted either. In the close world of any niche investment funds, it is easy for contagion and a herd mentaility to take hold.

Investors in all sorts of funds are getting spooked and some of those whose portfolios include commercial property funds are wanting to liquidise their investments and move on to other funds and other asset classes. Commercial property investment fund managers were left with little option but to suspend the funds while they sell the asset. It can take a long time to sell an office block, business park or a retail outlet, believe me.

The thought of Brexit has, understandably, made many people twitchy – just look at the pre-poll rock solid political careers it has ended but now some new careers have begun too. While the matter of the prime ministerial succession and the timescale has been settled earlier than first assumed, the financial markets reacted to uncertainty.

In those first weeks post-24 June along with the value of sterling falling, FTSE companies most exposed to UK business interests saw their share price drop more than those with more international exposure. There was much mention of housebuilders’ shares falling as if this was proof of a mass property Brexodus.

To make a connection between the closing of commercial property investment funds and a potential housing market crash á la 2009 is crass but some reporters whose business is not, ordinarily, the reporting of business can be forgiven in not appreciating the very clear distinction between commercial property and residential property.

Investors in the housing market in the UK are, in the main, those who live in their investment. The forces driving commercial property investment funds are very different from those governing the housing market, namely a fundamental shortage and a low interest rate environment in the case of the latter.

The economic and financial expert view is that whereas the credit crunch of 2008 and 2009 was a financial crisis with political ramifications, what we are experiencing now is quite the reverse.

Setting aside on what the actress Mrs Patrick Campbell was commenting when she said it, I am minded to agree with her when it comes to the present situation: “My dear, I don't care what they do, so long as they don't do it in the street and frighten the horses.”

Will Mooney MRICS
Partner
Commercial, Cambridge

EU referendum - Impact on the land market

Arable farmers in particular are desperate to see more sun because sunshine at this time of year is so important to help their crops yield heavily.

June was a relatively dull month and July did not look summery till this week so there are concerns that yields will be down on last year, which is almost inevitable because last year was in general a bumper harvest - albeit crop prices were low. 

On the upside the weakening pound following the EU referendum has helped protect UK farmers from recent falls in wheat prices on world markets as UK wheat has become comparatively cheap. 

This weakening of sterling on the foreign exchange markets is generally good news for farmers because it makes imports more expensive and UK exports more competitive.  This has generally helped UK commodity prices such as beef, lamb or cereal. 

Indeed the exchange rate is probably the single most important factor impacting on the profitability of farmers in the UK and so in the short term at least, the effect of the referendum is good news although the longer term impacts of an exit from the EU is far more difficult to predict.

So what impact is all this uncertainty having on the land market?  Well, early indications are that Brexit has had little if any immediate effect.  Having seen a surge in land values over the last decade, farmland prices had started to ease a little over the last six months as the impact of the massive slump in commodity prices affected farm incomes. 

But with commodity prices firming a little and concern that other commercial and residential asset values are likely to slip, farmland may once again become a more attractive investment for farmers and investors alike.

And with interest rates looking destined to fall this is making borrowing money as cheap as I have ever seen.  For example fixed term rates of up to seven years offered by the Agricultural Mortgage Company have fallen below the Bank of England Base Rate, which must surely indicate that the money markets are anticipating a rate cut.

So, in the short term the outlook for farming has become a little brighter and lets hope our late arriving summer weather stays.

James Stephen MRICS FAAV
Partner
Rural Practice Chartered Surveyor, Wells
T: 01749 683381
E: james.stephen@carterjonas.co.uk