MAY PROFESSIONAL PONDERINGS

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1 MAY PROFESSIONAL PONDERINGS With our colleagues in the Agricultural Team busy with Basic Payment work at the present time, the Planning & Development Team are happy to step in to provide a topical update on current planning and development issues in this month s Ponderings. After a busy and productive first quarter, the one thing that we didn t need was a period of uncertainty, and then along comes a General Election. Who saw that coming? Whilst we do not expect major market fluctuations, there is always a risk that deals may get held up until this period of uncertainty is over and we settle into a new parliament. Even then we have the prospect of Brexit negotiations to overcome, and so we take nothing for granted when it comes to predicting the development land market. Prior to the election announcement the government had published their plans for Fixing our broken housing market in a Housing White Paper. Published in February, it once again recognises a persistent under provision in new housing since the 1970 s, and seeks to introduce new measures to address the problem.

2 Some of the themes are familiar, such a simplifying and speeding up the local plan making process, as well as encouraging brownfield development and seeking to boost affordable housing. Other suggestions include reducing the life of planning permissions and simplifying the process of serving completion notices, in order to speed up development, adopting a new Housing Delivery Test and standardised measure for housing need, and giving greater support and encouragement for smaller windfall scale developments. There are also plans to increase planning application fees by 20% and the possibility of fees for planning appeals! We will wait with interest to see how these initiatives are affected by the outcome of the election, but note that reducing the life of consents and increasing the cost of obtaining them, may in fact inhibit development delivery rather than assisting it. In the meantime, Local Authorities continue to struggle to cope with the current system for plan making and duty to maintain a 5 year deliverable supply of housing land. A number of local authorities in our area who have previously had no issue with their 5 year housing supply have recently slipped into difficulty with appeal decisions going against them. These include Peterborough City and Bedford Borough. Other authorities who have struggled in the past, such as Wellingborough and South Northants, now seem to have turned the tide and find that decisions are going in their favour, whilst South Cambridgeshire is still addressing the consequences of a failing supply. Having said this, the issue of supply is very volatile and can change quite rapidly. Council s with a strong 5 year supply one day can find themselves with a problem a few months later, particularly if they are relying on large sites to ensure their housing delivery. Local Plan reviews continue apace with almost every authority in our area at some stage in the local plan review process.

3 Recent consultations include Bedford Borough (commenced on 24 April) East Northamptonshire (call for sites) and Peterborough (draft consultation), with further consultations this summer in South Northants, Central Bedfordshire, Kettering and Huntingdonshire. Local Plans still represent an important opportunity for land promotion and landowners should make themselves aware of the status of any plan covering their area. The result of a successful planning promotion is the ability to negotiate the sale of land with the benefit of a planning permission for development. In this regard, we have had a busy start to the year and are pleased to report the successful sale of 40 acres of residential development land at Thrapston; the negotiated sale of a 31 house scheme at Lidlington, Bedfordshire; the sale of 6.4 acres of employment land at Northampton; as well as a number of ongoing sales and negotiations. The development land market has remained steady although it is subject to locational fluctuation, with location being key to achieving the best land prices underpinned by the greatest developer demand. We will return you to the capable hands of our Agricultural Team next month, provided they survive the rigours of Basic Payment Scheme applications, and hope in the meantime that the equally unpredictable weather conditions will at least give way to some good growing conditions throughout the month of May. Andrew Middleditch Senior Associate Planning & Development

4 Forthcoming Special Sales at Bletsoes Thrapston & Stratford Auctions Thursday 4th May at Thrapston Spring Lamb Show & Sale Saturday 13th May at Thrapston Special Sale of Ewes with Lambs at Foot Tuesday 23rd May at Stratford Spring Lamb Show & Sale Further entries are invited for all of the above sales. Please contact our Auctions Team for further information. We look forward to seeing you at Bedfordshire YFC Annual Country Show & Rally On Saturday 20th May 2017 At Clayhill Farm, Westoning, Bedfordshire And Northamptonshire YFC County Show & Rally On Saturday 27th May 2017 At Manor Farm, Pilton, Oundle We look forward to welcoming you on to our stand, where light refreshments will be available throughout the day

5 MARKET REPORT FOR TUESDAY 2ND MAY A much better trade than previous weeks and it was good to see that we are in front of, not in line with, many markets around the country for prices. If you have some to market, please contact Alastair, who will then be able to encourage buyers to come, especially if they have a better idea of what will be for sale on the day. New Season Lambs - 92 Sold at 10.30am Auctioneer Alastair Brown A fantastic show of New Season Lambs this week in comparison to the phone calls made on Monday, as vendors found that lambs had done better than expected. We saw the best trade in the Midlands with an SQQ of over 211.5p. Top price went to a pen of 39kg lambs from Eddie Brain at 221p or 86.19; followed by Sue Collett s 38.5kg lambs at 215.5p or 82.97; and then Christine Plunkett s 39kg lambs at 215p or Heavier lambs weighing 42kg, from Saffron Estates Ltd, topped at 213p or 89.46; at the same weight Sue Collett topped at 211p or 88.62; 44kg lambs from Christine Plunkett topped at 91.96, with others a kilo lighter at 89.87; Andrew Taylor topped at 209p or for 42kg lambs; and H Smith & Sons topped at 191p or for 45.5kg lambs. In the heavy section, lambs sold to for 50kg Suffolks from CJ Holmes. Weight From Price Top Price Average Price 32-39kg 214p or p or p or kg 191p or p or p or kg 181p or p or p or Alastair Brown Shaun Barron Brian Pile Claire Worth Auction Team Direct Dial

6 Old Season Lambs Sold Auctioneer Alastair Brown Vendors are finally finishing last year s lambs, and therefore numbers are slowly decreasing, a few teeth are being pushed through so it s good that they are being sold sooner rather than later, as lambs with teeth are less. Today s prices averaged over 4 pence more than last week and topped at 185p or If you have some, market them soon. Contact Alastair for more information. Light Weights Not many light old season lambs at this time of year. P Bird topped in this section with a 30kg lamb selling to 174p or kg 174p or p or p or Standard Weights Mark Greenaway topped in this section at 185p or 71.23; followed by Joe Tomlin at 179p; and a penny behind with lambs at 37kg from WA Goffe & Son kg 169p or p or p or Medium Weights Mark Greenaway lead the way topping at 185p or with his lambs today; next top went to JE Bury at 183.5p for his 43kg lambs; followed by Pip Careless at 182p or kg 178p or p or p or Heavy Weights Pip Careless topped in this section at 179p or for his 47.5kg lambs; P Bird topped at 177p; along with Kevin Elgar; 51kg lambs sold to 165p or for Ben Hemmings ; and 52kg lambs from WA Goffe & Son sold to 156p or kg 156p or p or p or 82.69

7 Over 52kg Kevin Elgar topped in this section at 159p for his 53kg lambs; Ben Hemmings topped at 155p or for 54kg lambs; and top price per head sold to for Mark Greenaway. 52kg+ 153p or p of p or Cull Ewes & Rams - 75 Auctioneer Alastair Brown A better entry this week met a good trade for the quality forward. There were many plain ewes forward today and the best sorts topped at 83 for a Texel ram from Tim Withers. Ewes topped at 80 for WA Goffe & Son; with Sue Collett s entry closely following at 79; next top price was 75 which went to JM Jones with a Suffolk; John Bourne & Son sold at the same money for a Mule; and also at 75 a Charollais from Joe Tomlin; whilst other Mules sold to 67 for the Dancer Brothers. If you have some ewes or rams to market, please contact Alastair, who can then inform the buyers. Top Price Average Price Ewes Ewes with Lambs - 8 Auctioneer Alastair Brown An entry of Zwartbles x ewe lambs with Texel Blue x lambs at foot, topped at 153 for doubles and 102 for single outfits from FH Loggin & Sons. More are needed each week. If you have some, please contact Alastair so he can inform the buyers.

8 950+ Lots of Plants, Fresh Produce, Hatching Eggs, Miscellaneous, and Fur (but NO) Feather! The Sale of Poultry will Commence on Tuesday 16 th May ** Please contact our Auctioneers if you have entries, so we can inform buyers. We are expecting a large entry ** Another busy market day with plenty of lots on offer lots of Hatching Eggs, 100 lots of Plants, 60 lots of Fresh Produce, 10 Rabbits, and 160+ lots of Miscellanea, anything saleable will be accepted in this section as you can see on the below table. We do hold the right to refuse some items. Come and have a look for yourself, or contact our Auctioneers for further information - Shaun Barron Hatching Eggs Prices Trays of Eggs Half a Dozen Eggs Eggs Goose Eggs 80p each Tray of Lavender Pekin Tray of Silver 2 Spangled Hamburgh Tray of Pekin Cuckoo Pekin 1 10 Turkey Eggs 50p each Serama Eggs 1 Fresh Fruit & Veg Potatoes 2 Pickled Eggs 2.50 Spring Cabbage 1.80 Sweet Heart Cabb 50p 90p Asparagus 1.80 Curly Kale 1 Rhubarb 1 Cauliflower 80p Fur (but NO Feather) Giant Cont Rabbit 14 Rabbits 3 Dwarf Lop Buck 3 Dwarf Lop Doe 3 Miscellaneous Prices Chainsaw Pressure Washer 65 Bird Bath 20 Poultry Drinkers 2-10 Rat Trap 3 Box of Tools 3-10 Camping Stove 10 Rabbit Run 16 Bible 5 Plants & Garden Bags of Kindling 3 Bags of Compost 3.50 Orchids 3-6 Bedding Plants 50p - 2 Senetti 1.50 Petunias Begonias Trailing Lobelia 2.50 Tomatoes 50p Sage Plant 2 Mint Plant 4 Chives 2.50 Box 2-10 Black Current Bush 5.50 Planters 1-10 Stone Fox 28 Stone Horse 16