§ Mr. AlexanderTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will take steps to ease the agricultural occupancy planning conditions attached to a farm dwelling when a farmer has had to go out of farming after a specified number of years.
§ Mr. Yeo[holding answer 19 December 1991]: Conditions that restrict the occupancy of a dwelling to an agricultural worker seek to keep the dwelling available for the purposes which justified its provision. The Department's model agricultural occupancy condition, in DOE circular 1/85, enables a dwelling to be occupied by either someone "last employed" in agriculture or an agricultural worker in the locality. If circumstances change, an application can be made to the local planning authority for the condition to be lifted.