I1 One of the few circumstances in which isolated residential development in the countryside may be justified is when accommodation is required to enable farm or forestry workers to live at or in the immediate vicinity of their place of work. Normally it will be as convenient for such workers to live in nearby towns or villages as it will be for them to live where they work. This may have domestic and social advantages as well as avoiding potentially intrusive development in the countryside.
I2 There will be some cases, however, in which the demands of the farming or forestry work concerned may make it essential for one or more of the people engaged in this work to live at or very close to the site of their work. Whether this is essential in any particular case will depend on the needs of the farm or forestry enterprise concerned and not on the personal preferences or circumstances of any of the individuals involved.
I3 Despite planning policies that impose strict controls on new residential development in the open countryside, and the substantial reduction in agricultural employment, the demand for such development remains high. Some of this demand may be justified by the genuine needs of farming and forestry, but much is speculative and stems from applicants seeking to exploit the physical or financial advantages of a new house in the countryside. It is, therefore, essential that all applications for planning permission for new agricultural or forestry dwellings are scrutinised thoroughly with the aim of detecting attempts to abuse the concession that the planning system makes for such dwellings.
I4 In particular, it will be important to establish that stated intentions to engage in farming or forestry are genuine, are reasonably likely to materialise and are capable of being sustained for a reasonable period of time. It will also be important to establish that the needs of the intended enterprise require one or more of the people engaged in it to live nearby.
Permanent agricultural dwellings
I5 New permanent dwellings should only be allowed to support existing agricultural activities on well-established agricultural units, providing:
a. there is a clearly established existing functional need (see paragraph I6);
b. the need relates to a full-time worker or one who is primarily employed in agriculture and does not relate to a part-time requirement;
c. the unit and the agricultural activity concerned have been established for at least three years, have been profitable for at least one of them, are currently financially sound, and have a clear prospect of remaining so (see paragraph I10);
d. the functional need could not be fulfilled by another dwelling on the unit, or any other existing accommodation in the area which is suitable and available for occupation by the workers concerned; and
e. other normal planning requirements, for example on siting and access, are satisfied.
I6 A functional test is necessary to establish whether it is essential for the proper functioning of the enterprise for one or more workers to be readily available at most times. Such a requirement might arise, for example, if workers are needed to be on hand day and night:
a. in case animals or agricultural processes require essential care at short notice;
b. to deal quickly with emergencies that could otherwise cause serious loss of crops or products, for example, by frost damage or the failure of automatic systems.
I7 In cases where the local planning authority is particularly concerned about possible abuse, it may be helpful to investigate the history of the holding to establish the recent pattern of use of land and buildings and whether, for example, any dwellings or buildings suitable for conversion to dwellings have recently been sold separately from the farmland concerned. Such a sale could constitute evidence of lack of agricultural need.
I8 The protection of livestock from theft or injury by intruders may contribute on animal welfare grounds to the need for an agricultural dwelling, although it will not by itself be sufficient to justify one. Requirements arising from food processing, as opposed to agriculture, cannot be used to justify an agricultural dwelling. Nor can agricultural needs justify the provision of new dwellings as retirement homes for farmers.
I9 If a functional requirement is established, it will then be necessary to consider the number of workers needed to meet it, for which the scale and nature of the enterprise will be relevant.
I10 New permanent accommodation cannot be justified on agricultural grounds unless the farming enterprise is economically viable. A financial test is necessary for this purpose, and to provide evidence of the size of dwelling which the unit can sustain.
I11 Agricultural dwellings should be of a size commensurate with the established functional requirement. Dwellings which are unusually large in relation to the agricultural needs of the unit, or unusually expensive to construct in relation to the income it can sustain in the long-term, should not normally be permitted. It is the requirements of the enterprise rather than of the owner or occupier which are relevant to determining the size of dwelling that is appropriate to a particular holding.
I12 There will be some cases in which the planning circumstances of the site are such that, if a new permanent dwelling is approved, the local planning authority may wish to consider making permission subject to a condition removing some of the permitted development rights under part 1 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 for development within the curtilage of a dwelling house. For example, proposed extensions could result in a dwelling whose size exceeded what could be justified by the functional requirement, and affect the continued viability of maintaining the property for its intended use given the income which the agricultural unit can sustain. However, it will always be preferable for such conditions to restrict the use of specific permitted development rights rather than to be drafted in terms which withdraw all those in a Class (see paragraphs 86-90 of the Annex to DOE Circular 11/95).
I13 Care should be taken to choose a site which is suitably located to meet the identified functional need and well-related to existing farm buildings or other dwellings. Local planning authorities are able where necessary to control the siting of agricultural buildings erected under permitted development rights (see paragraph 3.6 and Annex E). When they are considering the siting of such buildings, the possible need for an agricultural dwelling in connection with them is capable of being a material consideration.
Temporary agricultural dwellings
I14 If a new dwelling is essential to support a new farming activity, whether on a newly-created agricultural unit or an established one, it should normally for the first three years be provided by a caravan, a wooden structure which can be easily dismantled, or other temporary accommodation. It should satisfy the following criteria:
a. clear evidence of a firm intention and ability to develop the enterprise concerned (significant investment in new farm buildings is often a good indication of intentions);
b. functional need (see paragraph I6);
c. clear evidence that the proposed enterprise has been planned on a sound financial basis;
d. the functional need could not be fulfilled by another dwelling on the unit, or any other existing accommodation in the area which is suitable and available for occupation by the workers concerned; and
e. other normal planning requirements, for example on siting and access, are satisfied.
I15 If permission for temporary accommodation is granted, permission for a permanent dwelling should not subsequently be given unless the criteria in paragraph I5 are met. The planning authority should make clear the period for which the temporary permission is granted, the fact that the temporary dwelling will have to be removed, and the requirements that will have to be met if a permanent permission is to be granted. It will be unsatisfactory to grant successive extensions to a temporary permission over a period of more than three years. Local planning authorities should not grant temporary permissions in locations where they would not permit a permanent dwelling.
Forestry dwellings
I16 Local planning authorities should apply the same criteria to applications for forestry dwellings as to agricultural dwellings (paragraphs I1 - I5). The other principles in the advice on agricultural dwellings are equally relevant to forestry dwellings. Under conventional modern methods of forestry management, which use a largely peripatetic workforce, a new forestry dwelling is unlikely to be justified except perhaps to service intensive nursery production of trees.
Occupancy conditions
I17 Where the need to provide accommodation to enable farm or forestry workers to live at or near their place of work has been accepted as justifying isolated residential development in the countryside, it will be necessary to ensure that the dwellings are kept available for meeting this need. For this purpose planning permission should be made subject to an occupancy condition. The following model condition is recommended:
"The occupation of the dwelling shall be limited to a person solely or mainly working, or last working, in the locality in agriculture or in forestry, or a widow or widower of such a person, and to any resident dependants."
I18 It should not be necessary to tie occupation of the dwelling to workers engaged in one specific farm or forestry business even though the needs of that business justified the provision of the dwelling. The model occupancy condition recommended above will, however, ensure that the dwelling is kept available to meet the needs of other farm or forestry businesses in the locality if it is no longer needed by the original business, thus avoiding a proliferation of dwellings in the open countryside. DOE Circular 11/95 gives further advice on agricultural occupancy conditions.
I19 When granting permission for a new agricultural dwelling, local planning authorities should be aware of the scope for imposing an occupancy condition not only on the dwelling itself but also on any existing dwellings on the unit which are under the control of the applicant, do not have occupancy conditions and need at the time of the application to be used in connection with the farm. This should help to protect the countryside against the risk of pressure for new houses. The Courts have confirmed the scope for imposing such a condition (Macklin and others v. Secretary of State for the Environment and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, [27 September] 1995). In appropriate circumstances, authorities may use planning obligations to tie a farmhouse to adjacent farm buildings or to the agricultural land of the unit, to prevent them being sold separately without further application to the authority. Advice on the use of planning obligations is given in DOE Circular 1/97.
I20 Local planning authorities should monitor the operation of occupancy conditions, and take enforcement action where appropriate. They may serve notices under section 187A of the Town and County Planning Act 1990 for breaches of occupancy conditions, provided the breach has not operated continuously for ten years or more. This may be particularly appropriate in cases where the claimed justification for a permanent dwelling to support a proposed new agricultural or forestry enterprise, which could be permitted under the guidance in the 1992 version of this PPG, has failed to materialise.
I21 Changes in the scale and character of farming and forestry in response to market changes may affect the longer-term requirement for dwellings for which permission has been granted subject to an occupancy condition of the type set out above. Such dwellings should not be kept vacant, nor should their present occupants be unnecessarily obliged to remain in occupation simply by virtue of planning conditions restricting occupancy which have outlived their usefulness. Applications for the removal of occupancy conditions should be considered on the basis of realistic assessments of the existing need for them, bearing in mind that it is the need for a dwelling for someone solely, mainly or last working in agriculture in an area as a whole and not just on the particular holding that is relevant.
Information and appraisals
I22 Planning authorities should be able to determine most applications for agricultural and forestry dwellings in the countryside, including cases involving the imposition or removal of occupancy conditions, on the basis of their experience and the information provided by the applicant and any other interested parties. If this is not the case, agricultural consultants may be able to give a technical appraisal. This should be confined to a factual statement of the agricultural considerations involved and an evaluation of the specific points on which advice is sought; no recommendation for or against the application should be made.
I23 Some local planning authorities ask for applications for dwellings to be supported by a technical appraisal commissioned by the applicant. Such authorities may wish to prepare a select list of consultants likely to provide independent and unbiased advice, to state the criteria for inclusion in it, and to make it available to applicants.
Published: 1 March 2001
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