When applying for planning consent for a rural worker’s dwelling, it is still commonplace for councils to require a functional and financial test. This is a hangover from the 1992 Planning Practice Guidance and requires a business to prove that it is both financially sound and that there is an essential need for a dwelling (or an additional dwelling if this is the case) on the site.

Traditionally, we as consultants have met the functional need test by calculating the “Standard Man Day” requirement of an enterprise. A labour unit of one person is assumed to work 2,200 hours per year. These total hours are converted into 275 notional ‘Standard Man Days’ of 8 hours (ABC,2020). These 275 days should be enough to qualify someone as a full-time employee and be enough to justify their permanent presence on the farm.

However, with guidance on rural housing becoming increasingly vague at both National and Local levels, industry experts are finding more than ever that importance is being placed not only on the ‘full-time’ nature of the enterprise, but on proving the essential need that someone living on site is serving. That is, what “emergencies” can be mitigated when a person lives at their place of work that cannot be avoided if they instead just live locally?

The question we should be asking our clients, and indeed anyone wanting to seek consent for a dwelling on their own farm needs to consider, should be less “can I keep this person busy for 275 days of the year” and more “what can they do about it if disaster strikes at 3.00 a.m. that they cannot do if they are not here?”

Regrettably, though this is becoming a more frequent sticking point for local authorities, there doesn’t appear to be relaxing of the functional and financial tests in favour of this new requirement.

Rural worker’s dwellings continue to be (as described by Tony Kernon) “the most controversial planning applications aside from nuclear power stations.”

For more information on how to apply for planning for a farm dwelling contact Holly at hollyhawker@fcgagric.com or your local FCG Office.