Intensive Livestock Units (Hansard, 24 March 1983)

§ Mr. Giles Shaw

Class VI of the General Development Order 1977 gives a general planning permission for the erection of agricultural buildings on agricultural land, subject to certain restrictions about size, height, and so on, where the land is more than one acre in area and the buildings arerequisite for the use of that land for the purposes of agriculture".

An application for specific planning permission has to be made for a building which is not so requisite, or which falls outside the other restrictions in Class VI.

There can be no categorical answer to the question whether intensive livestock units come within Class VI. Each case has to be considered on its own facts. The meaning to be given to the phrase requisite for the use of that land for the purposes of agriculture is clearly important. In the past, my right hon. Friend has applied two different criteria in deciding whether intensive livestock units come within Class VI. Until recently, the criterion was that a certain proportion of the foodstuffs for the animals in the intensive livestock units should be produced on the surrounding agricultural land. The second criterion, which was adopted when the first was seen to be incorrect in law, was that intensive livestock units had the same permitted development rights as other, more traditional farm buildings—that is, that the building must be intended for a purpose which is part of the agricultural activities carried out on the unit as a whole. Following a reconsideration of the matter in the light of legal proceedings, the view now is that the proper interpretation of Class VI requires a further modification of the criteria to be applied in determining whether an agricultural building is permitted by the GDO.

For a building to be requisite for the use of that land for the purposes of agriculture", the use of the building should be reasonably necessary, in the sense of being subordinate, ancillary or subservient, for the purposes of an agricultural activity carried out on the open land comprised in that agricultural unit. Although it will be a matter of fact and degree whether a particular building meets that test, it will be necesary for there to be a direct link between the building and the agricultural activities carried out on the open land at the time of the erection of the building.