CLA advice team reviews 2026 and previews 2027

During 2026, the South East advice team (Rosie Salt-Crockford and Lucy Charman) continued to provide guidance to members on a broad range of rural property and business issues.

Advice given to members was wide-ranging and included:

• Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI): Guidance on scheme requirements, eligible actions, applications, payments and the practical implications for farming businesses who missed out when the (very short!) window opened in September.
• Leases and tenancies: Support on agricultural, commercial and other rural lease arrangements, including responsibilities, terms, renewals and negotiations.
• Access and rights of way: Advice on public access, permissive access, maintenance responsibilities, landowner considerations and managing potential conflicts.
• Woodland: Guidance on woodland management, planting, grants, environmental considerations and the responsibilities associated with woodland ownership.
• Business rates: Assistance with questions about liability, reliefs, exemptions, valuations and the impact of business rates on rural enterprises.
• Planning and rural development: Advice on planning matters, diversification projects, changes of use and development opportunities affecting rural property and businesses.
• Land and property: Support on ownership, occupation, management, environmental obligations and the wider legal and commercial considerations affecting rural assets including catchment matters and pollution, riparian responsibilities, boundary issues and so on.

• More member visits: This year we have continued to get out and pro-actively visit more members at their homes to better understand their property and business(s). This is something we plan to continue as not only does it allow us to better know the businesses we represent and therefore lobby more effectively, it’s actually just really nice in a world of tech and AI bots to have genuine conversations with real people.
• More meetings: The meetings continue, whether it’s National Landscape meetings, Local Nature Recovery delivery meetings, strategic authority devolution meetings, police meetings or FIPL panel assessments, we continue to represent members wherever possible and sensible.
• More Policy: Lucy continues in her role as our National Rural Crime lead, building relationships in the sector and continuing to emphasise the need for improved rural service delivery throughout an ever evolving local and national policing landscape. At the same time, Rosie has continued to work within the legal team and alongside the chief surveyor on agricultural tenancy matters including writing committee papers, questionnaires and gathering data for forthcoming agricultural tenancy legislation reviews.
• More events: This year, the advisory team developed and delivered the Rural Professionals Conference from concept to event close and adding interactive sessions and inviting an interesting set of guest speakers for a panel discussion, we also attended Cereals at Diddly Squat farm and our usual roster of events including the recent Forestry Conference, branch AGMs and South of England Show. 

For Lucy, her highlights from this year include seeing member businesses up close during our annual branch AGMs and member visits, getting to spend time with members is always one of the most enjoyable parts of the job.

In addition, a standout highlight of 2026 for Lucy was the launch of the Rural Community Drone Scheme – a  community owned and volunteer piloted drone in support of Hampshire Police – a really worthwhile project that she had been involved with for a while and finally got to see to fruition.  The drone is already proving its worth having been deployed and supported a number of operations.

Being an active member of 3 FiPL panels is also a highlight of the role, having sight of innovative projects varying in scale from single holdings to landscape scale schemes, and ultimately help to signpost, sense check,  and support these projects,  all the while whilst learning from other panel members is a great part of the job.

Rosie has particularly enjoyed working within the legal team by taking on some agricultural tenancy cases, and bringing together the final draft of the recently launched ‘Horses and The Law’ handbook. She’s also really enjoyed seeing the range of different businesses our members' across the South East have started up alongside their more traditional farming endeavours – from racehorse training to storing film sets, a distillery, rapeseed pressing and bottling, an antiques barn, farm shops galore and lots of unique camping/‘glamping’ stays.

In 2027, the South East advice team will continue to monitor developments affecting rural landowners, farmers and businesses. We will build on the foundations of a successful 2026 by strengthening internal knowledge through continued attendance at CPD events, improving signposting and ensuring that members receive advice that is practical, current and relevant to their circumstances.

Priorities will include maintaining a high-quality and timely advice service, ensuring we continue supporting members through ever-changing circumstances, creating and attending events where members have the opportunity to network and increase their knowledge and finally, we will continue supporting the wider CLA through our work with the London policy teams.

Do you need advice? Please call Lucy or Rosie on 01264 358195 or email southeast@cla.org.uk