Shaping the future of the rural economy
Key players in both the public and private sectors will gather in Kendal on 25th September and Harrogate on 23rd October for the RICS Rural Conferences to question what steps should be taken to save the Uplands and safeguard surveying jobs in the regions.
Held at the Castle Green Hotel in Kendal and the Cedar Court Hotel in Harrogate, the conferences will cover vital topics such as affordable housing, climate change, biodiversity, sustainability, tourism, the rural economy, and flooding and water storage. All have a practical bearing on the current problems of farming, working and living in the Uplands and the conferences will stimulate discussion on how to address these issues both now and in the future.
Each conference will run from 9am until 5:30pm and cost £141 (including VAT) for non-RICS members and £129.25 (including VAT) for RICS members and RICS Affiliate members. The conferences' high profile speakers include representatives from The Environment Agency, Natural England, Regional Development Agency, Government North East, National Trust, and local universities and tourist boards.
David Coulson, RICS Rural Faculty Board Member and spokesperson for RICS in the North of England explains:
"The Uplands is generally a forgotten pocket of the countryside – however, it's a vital cog in the maintenance of both farming practice and the rural economic climate. People traditionally think of them as wild areas, but the truth is they have been influenced by man over thousands of years.
"Not only are the Uplands a place of outstanding natural beauty which attracts vast numbers of visitors each year, they're also a place where people have to live and work and where 70 per cent of our drinking water comes from. Climate change, energy supply and food security have suddenly come to be real issues which need to be tackled. Our Uplands are a crucial carbon sink and store around one third of the UK carbon. This is in danger with peat erosion and 6,000 year old trees exposed in some areas, so you can see the urgency in addressing these issues."
The conference comes as recent survey results showed that the net balance of Chartered Surveyors reporting an increase in demand for residential farmland fell for the first time since 2005, from 50 per cent to -3 per cent nationally, while demand for non-residential farmland remained buoyant at 65 per cent. The net balance of surveyors across the UK expecting price rises in residential farmland fell from 30 per cent to -25 per cent. There is an expectation that lifestyle buyers will continue to retreat while the challenging financial climate persists.
Rising costs in food and commodity prices have pushed input prices upwards and are resulting in marginal farms becoming unprofitable - so ultimately there are fewer players in the marketplace.
