Shropshire Farming Talk: Will the General Election affect the rural property market?
With the impending general election at the forefront of everyone’s mind, particularly as the parties up their efforts on the campaign trail, Home county and London markets are reporting an instant downturn in activity whilst the more provincial markets appear to be less immediately affected.
Meanwhile all current lgislation is now either on hold or abandoned due to the "purdah” period.
This means that the Renters Reform Act is out of the window along with the lifting of safeguarding for HS2 north of Birmingham and tweaks to Inheritance Tax reliefs for environmental projects.
This leads to a further period of uncertainty as businesses and households grapple with the evolving policies of the various political parties.
Labour, if it wins, has promised to be a party to deliver more homes and to open up the planning system for new housing builds to meet the target of 300,000 houses. Whether it could actually deliver on that promise is debatable.
Reforming the planning system won’t happen overnight as it is underfunded and bogged down with fractured interest groups.
Labour might not have the shackles of rural constituencies saying ‘not in my back yard’ but they will have to answer to their green voters and covering the green belt in tarmac and concrete won’t go down well with them.
The move from area-based farm subsidy payments to environmental payments under SFI may have some unpalatable impacts on food production. That was all fine until the war in Ukraine, but food security is back on the agenda having been abandoned since the 1990’s and no government can risk a hungry revolting electorate.
A new government might have to take a polar view on current policy. Recently continued higher interest rates have been seen to begin to bite around the edges of property values and have definitely been having an effect on the less attractive and second-rate farms, land and rural houses. If a new government cannot tackle the economy effectively, this is much more likely than any of the other issues to impact values.
What the parties promise and what they can deliver is often very different and policies are likely to be constrained by ongoing global events in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. So, for now, there is uncertainty and probably some reluctance in the market but ample opportunities for the brave.
Mike Taylor, Senior Partner at Barbers Rural
