Agricultural Finance

We bring a wealth of experience of the lending landscape in the agriculture sector to every transaction, helping to grow businesses and maximise the value of rural assets.

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Key contact

One of our agriculture team talking to a client on their land

As a Partner in our Agriculture and Estates Team, much of my work revolves around property and I act for a variety of clients, ranging from private individuals, developers and lenders to property holding companies, farming businesses and pension trusts. I’m very experienced in dealing with rural and agricultural land and buildings in particular and many of my clients are repeat customers. I’m proud of this, and I work hard to put myself in your shoes.

Facilitating agricultural finance and funding

We help banks, lending institutions and investors safely lend money and take security over agricultural land and assets. 

We help farmers and trustees raise funds using land and other assets as security for borrowing. Our work helps take a business forward, helping to restructure debt, raise working capital, restructure a business and secure acquisitions

Our expertise has helped clients with funding and security arrangements for:

  • Renewable projects, such as solar wind and anaerobic digesters, biomass boilers and battery storage
  • Natural capital projects such as biodiversity net gain and carbon credits.

We can also advise on and enforcing agricultural charges.

Expertise and experience you can trust

Our role is always to help you secure the robust and reasonable agreement you need. To achieve this, our services include:

  • Conducting debt and security reviews
  • Carrying out security amendments and rationalisation exercises
  • Ensuring clients are compliant in their lending arrangements.

We’re efficient and commercial in our way of working because we understand the realities of tight transactional deadlines in this area.

We can also call on the expertise of our colleagues across the business in our Corporate, Banking and Finance and Real Estate teams if required to complete a deal. 

Complex lender and borrower agreement navigated thanks to real estate expertise

Matthew Hayes, Partner in the Agriculture and Estates team, and Abbi Melrose, Solicitor in the Real Estate team, recently helped both a lender and a borrower in a complex case.

The owner of a large rural estate which comprised of a business park, country house, abbey and holiday cottages was looking to refinance with a new lender as well as upgrade various parts of the estate. Seeking advice and expertise, he turned to Matthew and Abbi.

The borrower said: “I am breathing again now! What a journey – nine months but finally birthed the deal. Thank you for believing in us and our goals. Thanks particularly to Abbi for bearing with all the nuances of it.”

The lender said: “Thanks everyone for your patience, help and support. I’m pleased we have finally got there – you can safely pop that cork now.”

Hear what our clients say about us

Stephanie is always very quick to respond to any queries and always keeps clients informed during complex matters. She is extremely diligent and always seeks to provide a solution to issues.

Client testimonial Chambers 2026

Rory is a farmer himself and really knows about farming which helps a lot in dealing with agriculture clients. He is also thorough in the advice he gives and is particularly practical and pragmatic.

Client testimonial Chambers 2026

Greg Hill is conscientious and efficient, supportive, and understanding of circumstances.

Client testimonial Chambers 2026

Gareth Williams has been exceptional on options and large property transactions. I doubt there is a lawyer with more understanding in this field.

Client testimonial Chambers 2026

Emily Pumfrey is hard working, knowledgeable and doesn’t dodge a fight on behalf of her client.

Client testimonial Chambers 2026

Denise is wonderful to deal with and the breadth of her experience in landownership issues is very impressive. She is also excellent on land development and newer areas.

Client testimonial Chambers 2026

Rory Hutchings is a very good networker and is able to understand our needs and signpost us to the right piece of advice.

Client testimonial Legal 500 2026

We deal with Stephanie Dennis in the Agriculture team and the support we receive is always first class. She has extensive knowledge of a wide range of areas and her advice is always tailored to the circumstance which is extremely important for us. She is an excellent communicator and always gives prompt and relevant advice.

Client testimonial Legal 500 2026

Gareth Williams is unrivalled in the field of option agreements, promotion agreements, and solar agreements. Stephanie Dennis is equally skilled in all aspects of rural work. Both are prepared to go the extra mile. They give clear sound advice and are not afraid of pointing out the exposure to risk in any deal.

Client testimonial Legal 500 2026

Denise Wilkinson‘s understanding of our needs has been amazing. Her retention of the detail of our portfolio of land holdings has saved us hours of delving through paperwork. She has been incredibly adept at developing solutions to problems, while ensuring we understand associated risks at all stages. When problems have arisen in other areas of our work, she has been quick to find us appropriate support. We are particularly grateful to Denise for her rapid grasp of complicated proposals, and the thoroughness of her advice.

Client testimonial Legal 500 2026

HCR’s agriculture and estates team have been advising us on a range of issues for many years. We have been very impressed with both the breadth and depth of their knowledge. It has been really important to us that HCR have understood our work and how it is evolving. They have been incredibly thorough in their advice, having dealt with complicated purchases for us recently, but they have also been highly adaptable, offering solutions to new processes, such as agreements for the provision of Biodiversity Net Gain.

Client testimonial Legal 500 2026

I have worked with both Denise Wilkinson and Emily Pumfrey jointly representing a client. Both Denise and Emily provided an excellent quality of service that was distinctive in respect of their level of expertise, due diligence, eye for detail and the way in which they were able to explain complex points of detail in simple terms for everyone’s benefit, including out client.

Client testimonial Legal 500 2026

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