Phil Plant at Mid West Planning Ltd has over 20 years’ experience in agricultural and other key worker dwelling appraisals.

He can help your farming or other rural business provide accommodation for essential workers.

Your rural enterprise may be expanding and now is the time to provide a house on the farm or at other rural enterprises such as a fishery or equestrian yard for a key worker.

We have successfully achieved planning permission for a client in Shropshire by successfully proving there was an ‘essential need’ for an agricultural worker to live on the farm.

Shropshire County Council agreed with the argument put forward by Mid West Planning Ltd, that there was an essential long-term need for an agricultural worker to reside on site and that the business was financially sound and likely to remain so.

Our client was able to build a beautiful family home in the countryside that allowed him to reside at the farm to oversee operations.

Mid West Planning Ltd was successful again in December 2022 with another agricultural worker’s dwelling approved at a site near to Clee, St Margaret, by Shropshire Council for a local farming family.

Mid West Planning assisted an application by providing a detailed appraisal of his agricultural enterprise in support of an application for a permanent dwelling, which was accepted by the Local Planning Authority, and planning consent granted.

In all cases it was essential to demonstrate through a detailed agricultural/rural enterprise appraisal of the business that there is a genuine need for the operator of the business to live at the site.

The full appraisal included an assessment of the functional, or essential need, calculation of the standard labour requirement, and the availability of ‘other suitable and available’ dwellings nearby, as well and an assessment of the business in terms of financial sustainability.