Presidential Team

2024/2025 CAAV Presidential Team

Martin Hall (CAAV National President), Julie Liddle (Senior Vice-President) Mike Taylor (Junior Vice-President)

Martin Hall BSc(Hons) FRICS FAAV ACIArb FRAgS REV

CAAV National President

Martin was born and raised on a farm in the northern Lake District, educated at Cockermouth School and was in the very first REALM year at Harper Adams. Having his placement year with Davidson & Robertson in Edinburgh, he returned there on graduation.

Martin became a partner in Davidson & Robertson in 2000 and, on de-merging the rural part of the business in 2005, became its Managing Director, holding that role until 2021 and growing the business significantly. He is now the Senior Director. Martin’s work focuses on strategic development, dispute resolution, compulsory purchase and compensation and landlord/tenant negotiations.

Martin assisted SAAVA in joining with CAAV in 2010; SAAVA has gone from strength to strength since then. He was President of SAAVA for 2012-14, has been the Scottish Convener for the CAAV Examinations from their introduction in 2012 to 2021, sits on SAAVA’s Council and Executive and the CAAV Education and Examinations Committee. He is a member of the CAAV Panel of Arbitrators. Serving on the Future Skills Working Group, he was elected to the Executive Committee in 2021.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies, a recent past Honorary Vice President of the Royal Highland & Agricultural Society of Scotland and is a Recognised European Valuer (REV).

Martin has been married to Isla for 27 years and has three children. Kirsty, a graduate of San Francisco working in the environmental sciences field, Kate a graduate of Harper Adams and currently working in Scotland, and Will is reading Finance at Dundee. Outwith work, Martin runs 5k’s, is a curler during the winter months, farms, climbs Munros and is a director of his local Community Development Trust.

Julie Liddle LLM, FRICS, FAAV, MCIArb

CAAV Senior Vice-President

Julie is a Director of PFK Rural Limited, in Penrith, Cumbria. She is a farmer's daughter, raised in County Durham. Her key experience relates to landlord and tenant arrangements (both rural and commercial) along with planning and development work, including option agreements for renewable energy. Her principal area of work now is in dispute resolution – primarily as an arbitrator or independent expert.

Julie started on her career, later than most, at Harper Adams University in 1998, first taking a placement year at H&H in Carlisle. She returned to Carlisle in 2001 with a BSc (Hons) in Rural Enterprise & Land Management and passed her APC in 2002. During the early years, Julie took a keen interest in the CAAV and began helping with the Northumbria & Cumbria Junior Valuers. She became chairman of this in 2002 and started a very successful examinations self-help group. She became a Fellow of the CAAV in 2004 and Tutorial Organiser shortly thereafter.

In 2005 Julie became a director of H&H Land & Property and at the same time started a part-time degree from Northumbria University in Advanced Commercial Property Law (LLM). In 2010 she undertook the Worshipful Company of Farmers Advanced Business Management Course and still attends the annual events the group from that year hold. In 2012, she took up the role of National Observer for the CAAV exams, chairing the Observers from 2015.

In 2015 she left H&H to set up Robson & Liddle (Rural) Limited with her business partner, based at Penrith. She joined the Property Committee in 2017, becoming chairman for four years in 2020, sitting on the CAAV Council and elected to its Executive Committee. With a long interest in dispute resolution, Julie undertook a Diploma in Arbitration and was appointed to the RICS President's Panel in 2017, and to the CAAV Panel from inception in 2020. She is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (MCIArb).

With dispute resolution a matter for the Property Committee, Julie was involved in the appointment of arbitrators to the CAAV Panel, chairing one of the interview panels for the process. She was appointed to sit on the Oversight Board which oversees the governance for the CAAV dispute resolution service.

Further involvement in dispute related matters and training came in 2022 by way of election onto the Rural Arbrix organising Committee (renamed the Association of Rural Dispute resolvers (ARDR)

In December 2022 she and her business partner sold their firm to PFK Rural Limited where she is now a director.

Mike Taylor BSc(Hons) FRICS FAAV

CAAV Junior Vice-President

Mike was born and bred on a North Shropshire mixed farm to a long line of farmers. Being the youngest of five, with two older brothers, he thought it best to look for a career outside of farming not least because he does not like cold, wet, early mornings or standing at the wrong end of a dairy cow. His mother had briefly been a Rural Surveyor during WWII and actively encouraged him into the profession.

After a degree in Land Management at Reading University, Mike first worked for Coles Knapp and Kennedy in Ross on Wye where he gained valuable experience working under R.G. Williams Esq and assisted with the first edition of his book on Agricultural Valuations. After qualifying as a Chartered Surveyor and Fellow of the CAAV in 1984, Mike moved back home to Barber & Son in Market Drayton where he rose to the position of Partner in charge of the Rural Department. In 2008 he and his wife Louise, who is an RICS qualified mediator, set up on their own as Barbers Rural Consultancy LLP. He was also a director and shareholder in Market Drayton Livestock Market until recently.

Mike has always been heavily involved in the profession having been past branch CAAV Chairman and a practical and written board examiner before becoming a Council Delegate. He has been an RICS Rural Board member, an APC Examiner and is the author of various RICS Guidance Notes and Professional Statements on rural valuations. Recently he was a member of the working party which produced the Agricultural Landlord and Tenant code of practice. Mike has been an external examiner at Harper Adams University which is close to his family home.

Mike undertakes a wide variety of professional work including farm agency, valuations, compulsory purchase and landlord and tenant. He regularly acts as an expert witness having appeared as an expert in the High Court, the County Court, Tribunals, Arbitrations, Planning Inquiries and Public Inquiries. He also acts as a mediator and facilitator. He is grateful to have the support of his business partners and dedicated team to enable him to choose to take on the more interesting work and to provide time to join the presidential team.

When not working Mike enjoys golf, skiing and sailing. He and Louise have two adult children one of which is a musical climbing carpenter (an interesting mix but not all at the same time) and the other is a Rural Surveyor and Director of the firm of Briggs and Stone in Bucks.