ABSTRACT
The Agricultural Tenancies Act 1996 gave landlords and tenants greater freedom to decide the terms and length of their own tenancy agreements in the hope that it would encourage more letting of farmland. Most of the largest zones were in East Anglia, the Midlands and Yorkshire. An official perspective on the future of British agriculture was provided by a report from the Technology Foresight Panel within the Cabinet Office’s Office of Science and Technology. They predicted that fewer farms would produce higher quality food from less land. Spatially, farming will become more diversified with some areas specialising in industrial ‘non-food’ crops, some areas specialising in recreation and conservation areas, and some areas concentrating on competitive food production. The Ministry of Agriculture issued a consultation document which sought views on the development of environmental land management schemes based to some extent on a preliminary report on the Countryside Stewardship Scheme by Land Use Consultants which was attached to the document.
