DEFRA have announced the long awaited details of the new Slurry Infrastructure Grant.The aim of the grant is to help farmers achieve six months slurry storage capacity based on their existing livestock numbers.The grant also requires that the slurry store must have an impermeable cover. The grant permits farmers toinstall more than six months stora...

Tessa Milner of PFK Carlisle examines the conflicting forces that are affecting the property market in the run-up to Christmas.  The property market is showing signs of change, and this can hardly come as a surprise to anyone, as so many other things in our lives are changing almost on a daily basis – the prime minister, government p...

Fifty jobs are to be created as part of a £2m investment in a new headquarters for one of Cumbria's oldest land and estate agents. PFK Land and Estate Agents have submitted planning permission for a site in Mile Lane on the edges of Penrith, just a quarter of a mile from their current base. The building has been designed using a net-zero carbon app...

Selling in Winter, bringing your home to life & a market update. Our Cockermouth & Whitehaven team are excited to share with you our latest seasonal newsletter.  For the full read, please click here

At PFK, we have a dedicated Planning team - find out below how they can help you today: Why do I need a Planning Consultant? Planning Consultants have an expert knowledge of regulations and can therefore play a vital role in obtaining permission for projects with complex needs. Even if you have a knack for understanding intricate rules, securing pe...

Lynne Lancaster, Head of Estate Agency at PFK looks at the current state of affairs in today's market. The government's mini-budget weakened the pound and the result of that was that mortgage lenders immediately withdrew their fixed rate products. Nationwide immediately put plans in place for 'new' fixed rates however this obviously brought a ...

As we move through to the final third of 2022, things are still continually evolving with regard to the new farm support schemes, and the changing BPS with us now knowing a little more than we did earlier in the year, but still awaiting details of many of the new schemes. There are some up and coming deadlines, which need not to be missed: The appl...

As we transition into Autumn, Jo Edwards writes why now is the best time to sell your rural property: As we move into the final third of 2022, I for one am not sure where summer has gone. Up here in Cumbria, we have been extremely lucky in that we have had a generally warm and dry summer, but have not suffered the very hot and extremely dry co...

 Lynne Lancaster of PFK Estate Agency looks at the human side of buying and selling a home. In the days before technology invaded estate agency - flooding it with helpful and sometimes not so helpful 'proptech' – estate agents kept buyers' details written down sometimes on cards that were stored in plastic boxes. These were called hot boxes an...

The government has confirmed that a decision on an application for an underground mine that would be located on a brownfield site south-west of Whitehaven will be made on or before 8 November 2022.  A decision on the application, which was the subject of a Public Inquiry in September 2021 was expected on or before 17 August 2022.  Th...

PFK Estate Agency, Keswick, are delighted to announce the appointment of Catherine Armstrong. PFK Keswick's Branch Manager, Hannah Sims (left), will soon be going on maternity leave and PFK are pleased to announce that Catherine Armstrong (right) will take on the role as Manager for the Keswick office during Hannah's leave. Catherine has ...

Almost four months have now passed since Natural England published updated advice with regards to water pollution and more specifically Nutrient Neutrality causing significant disruption to planning application submissions across Cumbria. So where are we now? Honestly, not a lot further forward! We know that Cumbria is one of the worst affected are...

Whilst the recent heatwave will assist in bringing forward hay time and harvest (both of which look encouraging), commodity prices have begun to ease but still look to be well above where many would expect or want them to be. Farming, more than many industries, rarely has the luxury of certainty making budgeting at the moment quite a challenge but ...

Our Carlisle team have just released their brand new SUMMER newsletter! Click here to give it a read. We hope you enjoy it!

Rents grow at fastest annual rate in 16 years Average asking rents outside London hit another new record of £1,126 p/m, up 3.5% vs. last quarter and 11.8% vs. last year:Average asking rents outside London have jumped 19% (+£177) in the two years since the pandemic started, the same growth in rents that took eight years pre-pandemic to reach.This qu...