Farming and potential Brexit turbulence

In an earlier blog, Paul Burkinshaw summarised the Government’s current position in relation to a No Deal Brexit and farm payments, rural development funding and organic food production and labelling. The general thrust is that the government is seeking to maintain its financial support of the agricultural sector and so minimise potential disruption. However, he cautioned that farming businesses should use the current period to ‘take stock’ and ensure they are in the best possible shape if there proves to be disruption, particularly in relation to import and export supply chains. In this blog I’ll be looking at some of the practical issues.

A key potential point of stress could be business cashflow and, with this in mind, you may need to put funding in place at relatively short notice. Typically this will often be secured on your land and buildings so you will need to ensure you are clear about the ownership of your various landholdings, that the relevant deeds are to hand and correctly registered and mapped with the Land Registry. Bear in mind that if land holdings have been accumulated or modified over time or that any joint ownership patterns between family members do not follow a consistent pattern, then the accompanying paperwork may not be complete and ‘in order’. Use this time, when there is time, to have these things checked and, if necessary, corrected and sorted out.

Your assets are your livings, make sure they are ready to do what you need then to do, when you need them most - do a health check now and avoid costly last minute rushes. The choice is yours.