It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.  It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years. In this edition we get insight into the future for farmers, land and property owners from Robert Cole, Managing Director of specialist land development and property consultancy Mather Jamie. My predictions all relate to the challenges presented by changes announced in the recent Budget. Without wishing to sound too negative, I don’t think their implications have been thought through and certainly not fully understood, because at the moment, rather than being growth orientated, they are potentially disincentivising growth. So, I think we will continue to see increasingly vociferous and even more demonstrative appeals from farmers and business leaders for a rethink on these policy decisions – because literally their business and the future of their employees and family members are at risk! As a result, I also predict that banks will begin to get nervous about lending so freely into the agricultural sector, which in turn will stifle growth. Furthermore I predict further challenges will arise in the supply of residential properties in the rental market following the changes to stamp duty, and the increase in employers national insurance and the living wage will dampen employment opportunities as inflationary pressures impact wages across the entire salary scale. To put these predications into context, let’s consider landowners who are usually also farmers and the implications of the proposed changes to Agricultural Property and Business Property Relief. Whilst they may well be classified as wealthy on paper due to the value of land, we should remember they also rely on this land to earn a profit with average returns in the sector amounting to less than 1% of the capital employed, and it’s an asset that only has value when sold. Jeremy Clarkson might not be the best example to reference, but he has at least highlighted how hard farmers must work and how easily bad luck and weather can scupper the anticipated profits! We have increasingly seen how making a profit relies on diversification of farming businesses and/or investment in building a larger enterprise are key to creating the economies of scale necessary to deliver the return on investment needed to ensure a sustainable future. This Budget has sucked the life blood out of agricultural ambitions for our aspiring young farmers. This example underlines my point: Farmer A is aged 75, he decides he’s going to give a housebuilder an option to buy some land, with the ultimate aim of re-investment of any proceeds for future generations. At this point it is just an option – the builder can’t do anything yet as they need planning permission which may take years to approve. But because there is interest from a builder the value of the land has already increased – we call this ‘hope’ value, because whilst it increases the overall asset value of the estate there is no value until the land is sold. However, should ‘Farmer A’ die having granted an option to a house builder or promoter, under the new IHT rules that take affect from April 2026, an inheritance tax liability is triggered immediately based on this inflated value of the estate – even though there is not yet any tangible financial gain nor necessarily will there ever be. So herein lies the disincentive – where do the beneficiaries get the cash to pay the tax bill that will now be due post April 2026? Disincentives like this will not serve the Chancellor in delivering £1.5m homes in this parliament. It is clear that neither buying land to build a bigger enterprise or selling land where risk is attached through planning uncertainty, to create accessible wealth and family legacy are now not as attractive an option. I think this is going to lead to a lack of agricultural sector growth and investment because farming families will be more reluctant to build a legacy that ultimately burdens their beneficiaries with a tax bill they can’t pay. We will not see the full impact of this in 2025, but the affect thereafter could be very damaging for the UK’s agricultural industry and to our food security. To compound this, changes to Stamp Duty Land Tax will impact the rental market. I predict that we shall see more second properties being sold because they are no longer such an attractive investment. Whilst on the face of it this may mean more houses for sale, the knock-on effect will impact supply and push up the rents for private rental properties – delivering a double whammy to people whose only option is to rent because they are unable to get on the housing ladder – and potentially also add burden to the social housing bill! Whilst these are certainly worrying challenges, at Mather Jamie our job is always to work with landowners/farmers and businesses to find solutions and deliver positive outcomes and so I am trying to also be optimistic that these policies will be revisited, and the Government’s vision of economic growth will be achieved. Beware the unintended consequences of political ideology.

Effective video marketing is only becoming more and more essential, so it’s important to do it well in 2025. Here are some key reasons why you should consider hiring a professional marketing video production company to promote your company effectively. Brand image and reputation Creating videos on a phone, low-budget camera, or without professional videography knowledge, will lead to amateur looking videos – which damages your brand image and reputation. Conversely, a marketing video production company, such as Glowfrog, will create high quality videos that are more pleasing for customers to watch, enhance your brand credibility, and are ultimately more effective in achieving sales. When you hire a marketing video production company you get the very best in lighting, image quality, specialist equipment, experience and understanding, audio quality, professional editing, and much more. If you want your company to have a strong brand image and reputation, and you want to use videos within your marketing efforts, it is essential to hire a professional production company. Cost benefit You may think you’ll save money if you create videos on your own – but this actually costs you more in the long run. Similarly to the previous aspect, the damage this can do to your brand reputation can harm sales and ultimately cost a lot more overall than if you had hired a professional company to create much more enticing and higher quality marketing videos. Great return on investment Your ROI for this form of marketing will be determined by the quality of your videos and how effectively your message is conveyed. Let’s look at an example to illustrate the ROI you might achieve. If the product or service being promoted sells for £30, and the promotional video is seen by 30,000 potential customers, just a 1% conversion rate from the video advert would create sales of £9,000. Assume roughly gross profit from that of £4,500. The professionally produced video might cost around £1,500 to create and promote. That’s potentially £3,000 gained, even on this relatively low-cost product. Another example: Product sells at £50, video is seen by 50,000 potential customers, 0.8% conversion is £20k sales. £10k gross profit. Video creation and promotion around £2.5k. You’re left with around £7,500. Of course, you may be promoting a higher or lower priced product/service, and you may convert more or fewer potential customers, so results vary – but you can usually generate a lot of extra revenue with a professionally-made marketing video. Staying relevant Over the last few years, there has been a 63% increase in the number of businesses that use video as their primary form of promotion.[1] If you aren’t keeping up with your competitors and staying relevant by posting slick, well-produced videos, your company is at a serious disadvantage. Video is not only a great means to inform people about why they should buy your products or services, but you now actually need to be posting great videos to even get noticed amongst the competition. Don’t get left behind. To achieve high quality, you should really consider hiring a production company. Boost your sales Seeing your product in action, or a video about how your service works, makes potential customers much more likely to buy. Video is naturally much more enticing and engaging for a viewer, as compared with still images. Unsurprisingly, around 8 in every 10 professional marketing videos have a positive impact on conversion rates and sales figures.[3] In fact, your website visitors are over 80% more likely to buy after watching a high-quality promotional video.[4]   Effective time management By hiring a professional marketing video production company, you can save a lot of time (and cost). You and your team’s time costs money. Not only can you free up your time and assign other tasks to staff, you will end up with much better quality and more effective videos, as compared to if you had your team create them using low-budget equipment and little videography knowledge. Which video production company should I choose? There are many to choose from but it’s wise to hire a video production company that specialises in video marketing and corporate videography, such as Glowfrog. This way, you know they have the skills necessary to do an effective job for your business. You can get an instant price estimate and find out more at www.glowfrogvideo.com.   Sources: 1. WyzOwl.com 2. TheSocialShepherd.com 3. G2.com 4. Wix.com

A large-scale survey on organisational culture by Nottingham Business School has suggested that there is a significant mismatch between the advertised values and policies of UK companies, and how employees behave on a daily basis. Organisational culture focuses on how people within a company think, feel, and behave, and can have a significant impact on achieving strategic ambitions. Its intangible nature means it is traditionally hard to define and measure. In the first study of its kind on the topic, more than 1,170 UK managers and employees from large and small-to-medium sized organisations across a range of sectors were questioned on cultural alignment; diversity, equality and inclusion; wellbeing; and opportunities to improve company culture. Just 18% of employees feel their organisation’s stated values or external image is very aligned to the current culture, while a quarter (25%) believe that the behaviour of their leader does not reflect values portrayed externally. The results also showed that only half of employees feel like the day-to-day behaviour at their organisation aligns with diversity, equality and inclusions policies. Just 49% said that there is a strong alignment, with a third (35%) expressing that there are inconsistencies. Although almost a quarter (24%) stated that their current culture does not support inclusivity, 76% said that it actively encourages positive choices or behaviours and discourages negative ones. In relation to wellbeing, more than one third (38%) thought that the current culture does not promote wellbeing and 31% expressed that their organisational culture doesn’t promote ethical choices and behaviours. In 28% of cases, respondents said that unethical choices or behaviours are allowed or overlooked. Dr Zara Whysall, lead researcher and Associate Professor of Business Psychology at Nottingham Business School, part of Nottingham Trent University, said: “Recent years have seen an amplification of interest among regulators and business leaders in the impact of organisational culture on company performance, ethical conduct and other important outcomes such as inclusion. “When you walk into an organisation, you soon get a sense of the type of organisation it is: how to behave, what is acceptable, what is frowned upon, what matters, and what doesn’t. You don’t need to read its corporate values or mission statement. “We can see from these findings that writing mission statements, creating sets of corporate values, policies and procedures does not influence or reflect culture unless these aspirations are embedded into behaviours. “Without this, you get cultural misalignment, a mismatch between the values espoused by an organisation and the way that employees operate day-to-day. The results from this study show that cultural misalignment is widespread in UK organisations, which is very concerning. “However, the results were more positive when it came to the opportunity to improve culture, with 59% of people feeling that their organisation is close to where it needs to be, showing that many workplaces need a cultural evolution, not revolution.” Associate Professor Whysall has released a free white paper Shift Happens: Strategies for Organisational Culture Evolution to help leaders, managers and HR practitioners understand the importance of culture and how it helps and hinders business. The paper gives practical examples and advice on measuring and navigating culture change.