THE Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) has called on Chancellor Philip Hammond to encourage longer Farm Business Tenancies (FBTs).

George Dunn, chief executive, said the current FBT's had failed to increase the amount of let land and had failed to increase the length of farm tenancies – the average is only four years.

He said: "Given that farming is a long-term endeavour requiring significant capital investment, patience, good soil management and the ability to balance profitable years against the bad, it is of grave concern that only a few landlords are prepared to let for sufficiently long periods of time.

"Short term tenancies are holding back progression, investment and sustainable land use. FBTs have been too short for too long and now is the time for that to change. The TFA believes that average lengths of term on FBTs should be ten years or more and that the Government should be using fiscal levers in order to encourage a more sustainable position."

Ahead of his Spring budget the TFA wants Mr Hammond to:

n restrict 100 per cent Agricultural Property Relief from Inheritance Tax only to those landlords prepared to let for 10 years or more;

n clamp down on land owners who use share farming, contract farming, share partnerships and grazing licences to avoid tax;

n offer landlords who let land for 10 years or more the ability to declare their income as if it was trading income for taxation purposes;

n reform Stamp Duty Land Tax to end the discrimination against longer tenancies;

n require landlords over whom the Government has influence – such as The Crown Estate – to default to using 10 year plus farm tenancies.

Mr Dunn said: "There is a growing consensus that the taxation environment within which landlords make decisions is encouraging a plethora of short term interests in land and that this is leading to unsustainable economic and environmental outcomes. We cannot allow this situation to perpetuate."

The TFA has also raised concerns about the rules surrounding higher rate Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on purchases of second residences.

At present an owner occupier of their principal place of residence is exempted from the higher rate of SDLT when purchasing a replacement dwelling for the current principal place of residence, regardless of how many other homes they own.

The same does not apply for individuals, such as tenant farmers who are required to live in "job related accommodation" who do not get the same exemption.

Mr Dunn said: "We are in the ridiculous position where a multimillion pound residential property developer is exempted from the higher rate of SDLT when they sell their main residence but the hard-working tenant farmer with a modest buy to let property in the local village is not. Hardly a progressive tax."