Newly published figures on agricultural rents are good news for Gloucestershire landowners. The report, published by The Country Landowners Association (CLA), shows that agricultural rents rose by an average of 25 per cent last year.

This month (April 2012) a new Bill comes into effect, bringing with it wide-ranging changes to time limits for enforcing breaches of planning control in cases of so called ‘deliberate concealment'.

Ignore asbestos regulations at your peril - penalties for breaches are severe. In recent years Brintons Limited were fined £100,000 plus costs for failing to prevent employees from being exposed to asbestos and last year, Marks and Spencer plc was fined £1,000,000 for health and safety offences relating to asbestos removal in two of its stores.

If you wish to do something on land that is subject to a restrictive covenant, be aware that planning consent does not override the terms of the covenant – they are two separate regimes.

When selling land, it is vital that responses to pre-contract enquiries are updated if there is any change in circumstances.