The unexpected President
Catching up with Norfolk farmer, Gavin Lane, as he takes over the presidency of the Country Land and Business Association with a strong belief in the power of partnership.
17 November 2025
Sitting in one of the boardrooms at the CLAโs Belgrave Square headquarters, just a few weeks before his new role is set to be officially confirmed, Gavin Lane happily admits itโs not a position that he expected to find himself in.
Unlike many of his predecessors, Lane hasnโt come from a landed estate background. He started his career in agriculture by contracting at one of his fatherโs farms and then became a tenant on land owned by his family and the Crown Estate. โI never saw myself as a natural fit for the CLA because I didnโt own land.โ
He now owns two farms in West Norfolk totalling around 1,200 acres, both of which are contract farmed, and a holiday cottage business. He also runs a residential and commercial property portfolio around Kingโs Lynn in partnership with his three siblings.
โI have been a tenant. I have been a landlord. I have been on both sides of a contract farming arrangement and both sides of various cropping licences.โ
Gavin, how has that wide range of experience helped you prepare for your new role?
I don’t think it’s unique, because I know an awful lot of our members have tenanted land, but I do think it gives you a perspective on best practice in tenancies and contract farming arrangements. You’ve got to have partnerships that are trusted partnerships.
The key is collaboration. Not necessarily joining up with your neighbouring farmer or sharing machinery, but being part of a cluster group, or a landscape recovery project, or even just having a really good team of advisers around you to say: Have you thought about this? Have you thought about that?
Ultimately, it’s about adaptability. It’s about being receptive to change and being able to make that change. But I don’t think trying to do that in isolation really works.
What do you think your biggest challenges will be in your new role?
Every CLA President must sit there and think, โthe political situation that Iโm getting myself into is the worst that anybody has ever had to deal withโ, but the present situation weโre in is not rosy at all.
I think weโve got some immediate issues to deal with. How do rural businesses adapt to the end of the Basic Payment Scheme, and how do we get the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Environmental Land Management as a whole, back on stream?
And then weโve got the challenge of Inheritance Tax. I want to make sure that our members have the best advice to make sure that the effects of the changes to Agricultural and Business Property Relief do not wipe their businesses out completely.
In terms of the wider vision, itโs about selling the idea that private land ownership and the transfer of businesses between generations is a good thing for the wider economy. Every time you upset that, all you see is a reduction in investment and therefore, a reduction in growth.
No government has yet sold to me what the alternative to private land management and private land ownership is. Nobody seems to have really articulated what their vision is for the countryside. There is no end of consultations, but thereโs not really a clear, defining vision.
If itโs nature, what is going on with the SFI? If itโs about food production, where are the incentives for the fruit and vegetable sector that we so desperately need?
Is it a lack of understanding of the countryside?
I think thatโs a lazy trope. When Keir Starmer was talking about his missions, there was literally nothing about rural areas. And thatโs not a lack of understanding; thatโs just a lack of any interest.
Given all these issues, are you still optimistic about the future?
I love the phrase, โoptimism is a discipline, and pessimism is a luxuryโ. We donโt have the luxury of pessimism; we must solve these things. There arenโt easy answers, but yes, Iโm really optimistic that we can solve problems for ourselves, and we can solve problems for the greater good.
What do you want the legacy of your two-year tenure as CLA President to look like?
If we can demonstrate that private land ownership can deliver on growth and investment for the country, for me, that will be a win.
Itโs trying to navigate through what is quite a complex part of history for the rural economy and making sure we donโt lose good people along the way.
All image credits: Tori Hancock Photography
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