Poultry sector despair at lack of support for development from UK planners

Building a free-range poultry unit in a nutrient neutrality catchment has reportedly become impossible.

Consultants Ian Pick and Sam Harison of Harrison Pick, who handle around 60% of all free-range poultry applications, said that while it was theoretically possible to convert an old cattle shed into a poultry house, you could forget it if you wanted to build a new unit in this type of catchment.

Speaking at a British Free Range Producers Association webinar, producers were told that nobody had succeeded in building a new free-range unit in a nutrient neutrality catchment since the rules came into force 3 years ago.

The situation is even worse in Wales, where there have been not poultry units approved since February 2022 and the free-range sector has seen no growth for more than 2 years.

Producers vented their fury at the lack of common sense from both local and national planners. Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), meant to make developments greener, is penalising farmers for too much gain.

In some instances, producers were told that if they delivered more than the minimum 10% uplift, they faced legal agreements and annual monitoring fees, with councils and county ecologists considering this a “major gain”. They complained this was a perverse outcome: punishing those who are doing the most to improve the countryside.

Nutrient neutrality was described by Harrison Pick as a “don’t even bother” situation for free-range systems. “Because our hens range, councils treat us as an unsolvable risk. That shuts the door on growth for the very sector that delivers the highest welfare standards and the strongest connection with the public.”

And even if, by some miracle, producers manage to navigate the nutrient neutrality minefield – which the consultants maintained is virtually impossible – the next hurdle was already looming on the horizon: ever-tightening air quality regulations. These rules, being applied with increasing rigidity, are now starting to trip up applications that would have sailed through just a few years ago.

Producers were told that even if every report is commissioned, every scrubber fitted, every box ticked, applications could still be thrown out as elected planning committees often bowed to local pressure.

Fifty local objections carry more weight than 10,000 letters from overseas campaign groups, but the outcome is the same: uncertainty, delay, and more costs piled onto members. Appeals, once a reliable safety net, are now slow, inconsistent and draining.

As Harrison Pick’s consultants reminded the Bfrepa webinar, political calculation, too, often overrides technical evidence. That was not just inefficient but destabilising for farm businesses trying to plan ahead.

Tags: Poultry, free-range, nutrient neutrality, catchment, units