Money isn’t everything, even if the money offered is £275m. This was the sum Sussex farmer Robert Worsley turned down in May from developer Mayfield Towns for his 550-acre farm.
The deal would have valued the land at £2m an acre, roughly 10 times the market value for greenfield residential land in the area, and 100 times the agricultural land value. It would have built 10,000 homes. Worsley at the time stated: “‘We are a rural community who don’t want this development, who don’t want to see Sussex being ruined.”
It seems that Worsley is not alone. Many farmers are not tempted by cash, with the prevailing sentiment that land is “for buying, not selling and only death, divorce, debt or retirement forces a sale”.
Click here to read the full analysis on how rural landowners’ mindset is changing and how developers need to understand that they don’t respond to the same inducements as other landowners and are often reluctant to sell to corporate entities.
Other articles in EG’s Rural Focus this week:
- How to build more rural homes
- Digital hubs in the countryside
- Rural life under the Tories
