South Norfolk agrees plan to pay pig farmer to unlock homes

The unusual deal was struck with the owner of Markshall Farm, near Caistor St Edmund in a bid to unlock house building in Norfolk. 

By not keeping pigs on the 180-acre site, which sits either side of the A47 bypass south of Norwich, it will stop harmful nutrients from getting into two rivers.

A farmer is to be compensated with public money in return for no longer farming pigs next to the A47 (Image: Denise Bradley)

At a planning meeting on Wednesday, Vic Thomson, chair of the committee said: “Quite simply this is a legal agreement to make sure this guy does not put anything on the land that creates phosphates and nitrates and that gives us the ability to get houses built.  

“But it's only in the catchment area of the river where this applies.” 

The move should help unlock the building of 5,000 homes along the catchment area of the River Yare.  

New rules on house building were introduced last year covering large areas of Norfolk, to prevent excess nutrients harming water habitats. 

But Dave Roberts, a Liberal Democrat councillor, questioned what was to stop the farmer from putting pigs on a neighbouring piece of land.  

Dave Roberts, Liberal Democrat councillor for Wymondham (Image: South Norfolk Liberal Democrats)

A planning officer said the committee could only consider the land in front of them.

"Other land holdings is not for consideration for this committee and not something we could reasonably control," she said.

The deal does not say when the farmer has to remove the pigs from the site but Ms Lincoln said it is likely to take six months for the “full cycle of pigs on the land to complete”.  

It was approved with six votes for and two abstentions. 

The amount the farmer, who has not been named, will be paid has not been officially revealed, but a recent meeting of Swardeston Parish Council heard it could be between £1m and £1.5m.  

It is the first deal of its kind in the country.