A range of delegates from across rural industries met in Sussex to discuss how to save tax on land and property among other topics.

A team of professional speakers led a seminar, held at Cowdray Park Golf Club on November 19.

The seminar, chaired by Sussex Enterprise, was jointly hosted by chartered accountants Spofforths, Savills and Landmark Systems - the business software specialists for the rural sector.

Clients were welcomed from across the South East by John Evans who works for Business Link in Sussex supporting land based and rural businesses, he emphasised the importance of knowing how to read a balance sheet broken down to profit or loss for each enterprise in order to review and adapt the business.

Speakers were invited to talk about the value of land and how to manage financial information as well as offer some practical planning ideas and tax tips with succession, recession and a general election in mind.

Chris Spofforth, who runs Savills Farm Agency business in the South East, gave a comprehensive review of the English land market. He remained bullish about the South East market mainly because activity over the summer in the region represented about 20 per cent of the total acreage marketed in England. Demand remained strong with land in East and West Sussex currently in short supply.

Adrian Pearce, Spofforths agriculture specialist focused on cultivating capital tax savings and finished with 10 tips emphasising that as a starting point if clients did nothing else they should make a will and review it regularly.