A QUARTER of rural land in Yorkshire was bought by non-farmers in the second half of 2015, new findings show.

Increasing urban property prices and falling land values could be fuelling a rise in new rural business start-ups regionally, according to the latest rural land market survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Royal Agricultural University.

It shows that non-farmers, including those starting cottage industries, accounted for around 25 per cent of rural land sales in Yorkshire over the past six months, up from ten per cent in the first half of 2015.

Property developers accounted for only two per cent of Yorkshire's rural land sales during the period, while sales to individual farmers fell from 69 per cent to 59 per cent.

The average cost of an acre of pasture land in Yorkshire fell from £7,500 during the first half of 2015 to £6,500 in second half.

RICS policy chief Jeremy Blackburn added: “Start-up businesses do not have to be confined to Yorkshire and Humber’s cities; the region’s countryside has a great deal to offer young entrepreneurs.

"Market conditions appear to be encouraging a wave of new types of rural business, and help must be given to support this trend further if our countryside communities are to thrive. "

Meanwhile, the author of a report for the Yorkshire Agricultural Society said it was hard to see any advantage to British farmers in leaving the EU.

Professor Wyn Grant of the University of Warwick said the lack of contingency planning by the Government would lead to at least two years of uncertainty, making planning for farmers difficult.

Most farmers were concerned about the effect on EU farm subsidies. Professor Grant warned that without the payments the future of many farm businesses would be in jeopardy.

He said: “There is a perception in the industry that leaving the EU would reduce the burden of regulation. I do not think there will be a bonfire of regulations as the problem is not just from Brussels but from gold-plating by London. There are legal complexities which have not been considered.”

Nigel Pulling, Yorkshire Agricultural Society chief executive, said: “ What this report has highlighted is the complexity of the number of different issues we are facing, but the Government hasn't filled in any of the blanks.

"A real concern is that in any negotiations, agriculture would suffer against other sectors such as financial services and the pharmaceutical industry which make a greater contribution to the UK's GDP, but what could be more important than the food we eat?”