GEORGE OSBOURNE’S reputation and his ability to manage the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s job has definitely grown since he took office and to be frank, against many predictions, including my own.

Somehow this year, Mr Osbourne managed to keep the secrets of his famous red briefcase tightly under lock and key and took the country by surprise with his proposals to turn the pension world upside down. For those with big pension pots and not yet committed to buying an annuity it will be great news and a comfort to know their hard won savings will not be swallowed up by the insurance system.

The budget was fairly neutral for agriculture, but there are a few changes to help us in the coming year:

• Annual Investment Allowance – this provides 100 per cent tax relief on plant and machinery purchased on the farm and the cap of £250,000 per annum has been raised to £500,000 a year until the end of 2015.

There is therefore a two-year window in which you are welcome to spend up to £1m in total, that is, of course, if you have those sort of funds available in the first place.

My accountant did point out that the relief does not apply to buildings but it would probably cover the internal fittings such as electric light or fixed equipment.

• SFP Roll Over Relief – My valuers association shrewdly spotted a potential black hole when the SPS finishes and the BPS starts on January 1.

These are technically two different schemes and two different assets which trigger a taxable event when you transfer from one in to the other.

Until the budget you would be deemed to sell your SFP entitlements creating a capital gains liability and yet there was no provision for the new BPS scheme to be a business asset.

The Chancellor has now remedied this so that we can sleep a little easier in our beds. You can now roll over the gain from a hypothetical sale of SFP entitlements into the new ones.

• Conversion of Farm Buildings – I have already told you several times about the proposed introduction of a new “use” category in the planning regime to be known as “MB”.

This allows the change of use of agricultural buildings to residential dwellings in defined circumstances to be implemented through permitted development rather than the full planning process.

In itself this is a major concession, but the defined circumstances remove some of the icing from the cake.

• The footprint of the completed dwelling cannot go outside the footprint of the original building.

• The buildings have to have been used “solely” for an agricultural use as part of an established agricultural unit.

The new rules, however, make no reference to the need for the buildings to be redundant or under-used; nor to any particular type of construction. This presumably could allow for the conversion of a Dutch barn.

In his budget the Chancellor has promised a review of the permitted development order with a parallel consultation on greater flexibility for change of use.

 

• Paterson ponders badger cull extension

NOT many of us would want to be in the shoes of Owen Paterson at the moment, although the new NFU president Meurig Raymond is one who would be capable of standing up to the anti brigade.

The two trials last autumn could not be described as successful, but it was too late in the season and the disruption of the extremists was under estimated.

Tomorrow (Thursday) is being trailed as the date for announcing the culling programme for 2014; and under present powers Mr Paterson could include up to 10 new areas.

Word on the street is that he will only dip one further toe in the water by adding Dorset to the Somerset and Gloucestershire trials of 2013.

The news has been welcomed by the NFU, CLA, vets groups and farmers alike.

Meurig Raymond said the Welsh Government had “got it wrong” by refusing to cull badgers and opting instead for a badger vaccination policy to tackle bovine TB; and has welcomed Mr Paterson’s consistently firm approach.