Agricultural land owned by College
Dear Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge,
SOS-UK is developing a programme to support universities and colleges to manage the agricultural land that they own to achieve their Net Zero targets and to support the recovery of nature and biodiversity in the UK.
We are writing to all universities and colleges across the UK to find out if they (or any wholly owned subsidiary) own agricultural land, so that we can plan our new programme to best fit the needs of the sector.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, we would appreciate it if you could please provide us with responses to the questions below, to help us with this important work.
We define a "wholly owned subsidiary" to be a company or other formally recognised organisation that is under full ownership or control of the college.
We define an "agricultural land" as per the Agricultural Act 1947:
“agriculture” includes horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming and livestock breeding and keeping, the use of land as grazing land, meadow land, osier land, market gardens and nursery grounds, and the use of land for woodlands where that use is ancillary to the farming of land for other agricultural purposes ( https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo...>)
Our request below therefore excludes any woodland that is managed for commercial production.
Please could you tell us:
1. Does your college, and/or any wholly owned subsidiary, own any agricultural land in the UK?
2. What is the approximate total area, in hectares, of the agricultural land holdings owned by your college, and/or wholly owned subsidiary, in the UK?
3. If the agricultural land that your college, and/or any wholly owned subsidiary, owns is split over multiple holdings under separate management, please could you tell us the number of separately managed agricultural holdings?
4. How many hectares of the agricultural land owned by your college, and/or any wholly owned subsidiary, are managed by staff employed directly by your college and/or the subsidiary?
5. How many hectares of the agricultural land owned by your college, and/or any wholly owned subsidiary, are leased to one or more tenant farmers?
6. Please tell us the type of leases in place on that tenanted land: (a) farm business tenancy (subject to the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995), (b) annual grazing/cropping license, (c) full agricultural tenancy (subject to the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1986), (d) other (please specify)
If you are interested to find out more about this work on farming, climate and nature please get in touch at [email address].
Yours faithfully,
SOS-UK
Dear Ms Winters,
I write to acknowledge receipt of your Freedom of Information request dated 21 June 2023. The answer to your questions is below between asterisks:
1. Does your college, and/or any wholly owned subsidiary, own any agricultural land in the UK? *The information is exempt under section 21 FOIA as it is available by other means on our college's website: https://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/...
2. What is the approximate total area, in hectares, of the agricultural land holdings owned by your college, and/or wholly owned subsidiary, in the UK? *The information is exempt under section 21 FOIA as it is available by other means on our college's website: https://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/...
3. If the agricultural land that your college, and/or any wholly owned subsidiary, owns is split over multiple holdings under separate management, please could you tell us the number of separately managed agricultural holdings? *The information is exempt under section 21 FOIA as it is available by other means on our college's website: https://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/.... The number of separately managed holdings is 18*
4. How many hectares of the agricultural land owned by your college, and/or any wholly owned subsidiary, are managed by staff employed directly by your college and/or the subsidiary? *11 acres*
5. How many hectares of the agricultural land owned by your college, and/or any wholly owned subsidiary, are leased to one or more tenant farmers? * All noted under 1, 2 and 3 other than those which which are not agricultural*
6. Please tell us the type of leases in place on that tenanted land: (a) farm business tenancy (subject to the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995), (b) annual grazing/cropping license, (c) full agricultural tenancy (subject to the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1986), (d) other (please specify) *All of (a) (b) and (c)*
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of this decision, you should write to the Senior Bursar, Gonville & Caius College, Trinity Street, Cambridge, CB2 1TA who will then assign an appropriate person to conduct the internal review. If subsequently you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the College. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely,
Robert Gardiner
RG Gardiner MA FCA
Dear Senior Bursar (Robert Gardiner),
Many thanks for taking the time to reply to our request. Your response is really valuable in helping us to assess the potential for farmland holdings in the education sector to have a positive impact for the climate and nature.
We will be conducting some further, more in-depth research with staff at institutions, like yours, that own farmland in the UK. Please could you let us know if you would be open to us contacting you in the future to invite you to take part in a voluntary survey or research interview? This would most likely be with a member of staff working on energy, sustainability, carbon and net zero.
If you have any questions about our research or our programme, please feel free to get in touch with the team at [email address].
Warm regards,
Kate Winters
Dear Kate,
Thank you for your note. Whatdotheyknow.com is normally a vehicle for FOI requests. Your note is not of that nature. I politely request you contact me privately.
Kind regards,
Robert
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