Agricultural land owned by University
Dear University of Liverpool,
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 university.
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 university, 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 university, and/or wholly owned subsidiary, in the UK?
3. If the agricultural land that your university, 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 university, and/or any wholly owned subsidiary, are managed by staff employed directly by your university and/or the subsidiary?
5. How many hectares of the agricultural land owned by your university, 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
Hello Kate
We’ve received your FOI request and will be processing it shortly. Your
reference number is FOI/2223/433.
Our response is due on or before 6 July (within 20 working days of
receipt). If we cannot meet this date, we will tell you about this as soon
as we can.
If we ask you to clarify your request, the deadline will be re-calculated
once we receive clarification.
In the meantime, if you have any questions about your request, please get
in touch.
Kind regards, Kirsty
Kirsty Rothwell
Freedom of Information Officer / Data Protection Co-ordinator
Legal & Governance
Pronouns: She/Her
Phonetic pronunciation of first name: kir-stee
University of Liverpool, Foundation Building, Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L69
7ZX
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[2]Signature-Footer
Hello Kate
Please find attached the response to your request for information under
the Freedom of Information Act (our reference FOI/2223/433).
Kind regards, Kirsty
Kirsty Rothwell
Freedom of Information Officer / Data Protection Co-ordinator
Legal & Governance
Pronouns: She/Her
Phonetic pronunciation of first name: kir-stee
University of Liverpool, Foundation Building, Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L69
7ZX
Please add [1][University of Liverpool request email] to your address book/safe senders list
to make sure you receive our emails.
The information in this email and any attachments is confidential. Unless
you are the intended recipient, you must not read, copy, distribute, use
or retain this message or any part of it. If you are not the intended
recipient, please notify the sender immediately.
[2]303D0137
Dear University of Liverpool,
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
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