Corporate Information

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) is first and foremost a membership organisation. All major decisions affecting the organisation are made by members at a national and local level.

The CLA’s strength comes from the diversity of our members. We strongly encourage members with all kinds of rural businesses to participate in the running of the organisation, and invite them to contact their regional office to discuss how they might contribute.

Each county in England and Wales is covered by a branch committee dedicated to supporting the needs of members locally. Supported by the regional office, the committees give advice on key issues affecting members’ interests and raise matters of importance to them, to feed into national policy-making.

The Policy Committee, made up of elected and appointed members, determines the CLA’s approach to national policy issues.

Policy-making is underpinned by a range of national policy sub-committees. Polisi Cymru covers policy matters in Wales. The other committees are: Agriculture and Land Use, Taxation, Business and Rural Economy, Environment, Forestry and Woodland and Legal, Parliamentary and Property Rights.

These committees work closely with the CLA’s team of policy advisers to develop and approve key policy proposals and strategies.

The CLA Board, chaired by the Deputy President, has control over the affairs and property of the CLA. It oversees the running of the CLA and holds the Director General and executive team to account for delivery of the CLA’s corporate plan.

The Board is currently comprised of:

Gavin Lane – Chair of the Board & CLA Deputy President

Victoria Vyvyan – CLA President

Nick Downshire – Chair of Audit & Risk Committee

Joe Evans - CLA Vice President

Sarah Hendry

Colin Hewitt

Caroline Wilson

Catherine Mead

Ellen Francis

James Miles-Hobbs

Susie Villiers-Smith

The CLA Council is the key representative body of members, chaired by the President and made up of elected and appointed members from across every county in England and Wales. The breadth of experience and perspective that this brings enables the Council to fulfil its role of advising the Board and its committees and to act as the CLA’s conscience in delivering its objects.

The CLA aims to remain at the forefront of responsible business practice and is accredited under the Good Business Charter (GBC).

The GBC measures behaviour over 10 components: real living wage, fairer hours and contracts, employee well-being, employee representation, diversity and inclusion, environmental responsibility, paying fair tax, commitment to customers, ethical sourcing, and prompt payment.

The CLA is an accredited Living Wage Employer. We pay directly employed staff and regularly contracted staff at least the real living wage as set out by the Living Wage Foundation.

The CLA is a signatory to the Prompt Payment Code and, in line with the Good Business Charter, prioritises paying all suppliers within 30 days as standard practice.

The CLA is committed to adhering to responsible tax management practices. We will pay our taxes where applicable and we will not engage in tax avoidance. We are committed to transparency in our relationship with HMRC, providing all relevant information to them, and to co-operating in resolving any disputes.

To demonstrate our dedication to protect and enhance our environment, the CLA has created a sustainability policy statement and listed our key environmental objectives and targets.