Single Farm Payment Entitlement Trading

C & D Property Services are now trading Scottish & English Entitlements in readiness for claiming the 2008 payment. There is expected to be strong demand for Standard Scottish Entitlements once again this year which, coupled with limited supply will help to maintain a strong trade. It is expected that higher value entitlements are likely to change hands in excess of three times their annual value. As changes have been made to the set aside scheme guidelines for 2008 it is expected that trading of these entitlements will be somewhat subdued in comparison to previous years. It would appear at present that claimants will not be required to manage land under present set aside guidelines in order to claim the 2008 payment on these entitlements.

English NON SDA entitlements are at present readily available with only a limited number of transactions taking place, entitlements with high historic elements will be difficult to place above 1.4 times their annual value. However lower value and area only entitlements are more sought after and as such are commanding higher multipliers. SDA Other and SDA Moorland entitlements are in shorter supply and so are at present easier to trade with a sound level of demand.

Entitlements can be sold, leased or transferred through inheritance and can be either sold with or without land but only leased with land. Sales without land are the easiest to deal with and will be the most popular method of trading. V.A.T. will be payable on Entitlements if the seller is V.A.T. registered. Unless otherwise stated all our transfers of Entitlements will be by sale without land.

Who will want to buy/sell Entitlements

• Farmers who have bought or rented land without Entitlements (naked acres) will wish to buy Entitlements.

• Farmers who have low value Entitlements may wish to trade up to higher value Entitlements to obtain a higher annual income per hectare. On the other hand farmers with higher value Entitlements may wish to trade down to low value Entitlements to obtain a higher initial capital payment although they will receive a lower annual income per hectare.

• Farmers who have setaside Entitlements in mainly dairy and stock rearing areas may wish to sell these and replace them with standard Entitlements as they find them inconvenient. These are likely to be purchased by farmers on marginal arable farms as the capital value of setaside Entitlement is likely to be much lower than standard Entitlements although the annual income per hectare is likely to be higher.

Lot Sizes

Lot sizes can be split to suit the buyer but Entitlements cannot be stacked up i.e. you cannot buy two hectares of Entitlement and stack it on one hectare of land. You can, however, sell part of your Entitlement, which is say low value, and replace it with the same or smaller area of higher value Entitlement.

Further Information

If you have any queries or require any further information regarding the trading of Entitlements then please contact Giles Lane at our Longtown office on (01228) 792299.

If you would like to sell Entitlements then please complete the attached instruction form and then either e-mail or post it back to us with evidence showing what Entitlements you have been awarded i.e. copies of the first two pages of your 2007 Single Application Form or latest statement of entitlements from SEERAD in Scotland or a letter from the RPA confirming that the Entitlements have been definitively established in England.