Cost to get change of use from agricultural to equestrian?

It's probably just your local planning permission fee. Question is - why do you want to?

If it's yours and you plan to keep it I'm not sure I'd bother just put horses on it. You can keep horses on agricultural land no problem, there is some grey area about feeding them hay in the field (supplemental feeding) but if your local council can be bothered checking up in hay in the field they have more time on their hands than almost all other councils in the UK!

I bought an arable field and applied to build a stable block - nothing formal about change of use of the field. That was approved and when I sold the property nobody (inc the buyers solicitors) asked about the land use. I would have argued that as they accepted the stable block they must have realised the land would have horses on.
 
I wouldn't bother unless you're putting in other planning at the same time. So I just put in planning for a field shelter, and it was 400 and something, but a good chunk of that was the change of use. If the land had already been equestrian I think it would only have been 95. Or maybe it would have been 95 if it were for non-horses on agricultural land?

You're only really allowed to graze horses and supplement with hay made on the same land, and you're not meant to ride or rug them if you want them to count as just "grazing" (rather than leisure). Basically, you're not meant do anything with your horse on "agricultural land" that you wouldn't do with a sheep (no sniggering at the back please)
 
The plan eventually will be for stables and a sand school. For now, it would be nice to be able to ride in the field in summer and put jumps up. It would also be nice to be able to rent part of it out, legally, for horses to use.
 
PeterNatt said:
I have done this several times. I used a local surveyor to get change of use from agricultural land to equestrian use for my fields. Contact local surveyors and ask them how much it would cost as I did it several years ago.
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Is it expensive, and do planners usually agree?
I'm panicking incase they refuse
 
Is it usually a straight forward transaction or are planners difficult? Not had much luck with them in the past! Would it be best to pay a surveyor or try myself? Seem to be spending hundreds on planning apps.at the moment!
 
steviw4 said:
Is it usually a straight forward transaction or are planners difficult? Not had much luck with them in the past! Would it be best to pay a surveyor or try myself? Seem to be spending hundreds on planning apps.at the moment!
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Mine was kind of change of use in that I wanted to put up a barn in a field, for the ponies. Because it was for equines they counted it as domestic rather than agricultural and the planning permission fees were a lot higher than they would have been for agricultural. I don't know my way around planning so I hired an architect to do the forms for me. She drew a proper plan, filled in all the forms and sent it in. Her fee was a fraction of the PP fees and because it was all done properly (I would have no doubt made a mess of that!) permission came through in just under 8 weeks. To me, the extra £ for getting someone else to do the work, was worth it.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
Or you could just put a few sheep on in addition to your horses. They make a huge difference to the land and are well worth the effort, ime.
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I had sheep but for their size they are a lot of trouble, so I changed to cows and they have improved the grass, and are good with electric fencing.
The cows graze all the paddocks, and share the sheds with the ponies, my calf pen doubles as a extra large stable. We could split our property in to residential, and agricultural, and when we bought it there was permission for stables and an outdoor school, which would have been in the wrong place for us, so we never used it.
I think agricultural has more flexibility, especially if you have a money pot in a SIP, pension.
 
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