County Farm Policy Review

The overarching objective of this commission is to challenge and recommend the role our County Farms Estate takes as a contributor to the Staffordshire economy. It should consider if our farms estate is making the right contribution to our economy and to understand if the farms can work harder (to generate financial return) and how, and if this can relate to/support biodiversity and environmental gain and supporting innovation for the farming sector, including our climate change objectives and wider benefits to the Staffordshire.

Primary Focus (the main effort)

The Council would like to commission a review of Defra's Case Study work alongside the New Entrant Support Scheme (to be published in the Autumn) identifying its impact on the County Farms Estate and how best SCC should respond from a strategic perspective.

Secondary Focus

The review should also incorporate a high-level sense check of the work undertaken that includes:

• The potential to release County Farm land to support strategic scale housing and employment development

• Utilisation of County Farm Estate to explore Solar PV energy generation

• Partnership arrangements with local universities and colleges to explore Agri-tech as a component of Local Industrial Strategy.

• Hydroponics: has technology improved to overcome the constraints of sunlight requirements.

• Net Zero by Nature: using the Farm Estate to mitigate the County Councils residual Carbon emissions.

Tertiary Focus

The review should also provide a general commentary on any relevant opportunities highlighted within the UK Government policy paper, 'Unleashing rural opportunity. How the government plans to support growth and prosperity in rural areas' published in June 2023, and also in respect of the Councils own Rural Strategy 2023.