Farm Succession

Only a little over a third of English farms have a firm plan for passing the business on.  A survey on farm succession showed that 37% of businesses had a nominated successor.  For most of these (34%), the business would continue within the family.  Not surprisingly, older farmers, larger farmers, companies and farming partnerships were statistically more likely to have succession plans in place.  Sole traders and part-time farmers were the least likely to have a replacement lined-up.  Whilst the headline figure for succession planning looks low, 29% of respondents stated that they considered it too early in their businesses life to answer.  This answer was most common among farmers under 40.  The findings come from the Farm Business Survey.  The collection of this data will now be ongoing  For more details see – https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/farm-succession-england-201314