Charles Cowap is a Chartered Surveyor and Education Specialist with over 30 years’ experience of new developments in rural estate management and valuation, from the emergence of management agreements under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, the arrival of Milk Quotas in 1984 to localism, social media and new forms of asset valuation in 2012.  He is now a leading analyst and interpreter of the latest developments for the profession and the rural economy through his work  with RICS, CAAV,in education and with other organisations and clients.

In recent years he has worked on various valuation publications, including authorship of the RICS Guidance Note on Valuation of Trees for Amenity and Related Purposes, the Information Paper on Comparables, joint authorship of the Guidance on 1986 Act Rent Reviews published with CAAV and the Information Paper on renewable energy valuations published in May 2012.  He is also the author of the chapter on agricultural property inValuation, Principles into Practice published by Estates Gazette, and Milk Quotas in Valuation: Special Properties, Special Purposes by the same publisher.

Concise Rural Taxation, his annual tax update, enjoys a healthy following amongst rural estate managers and rural valuers (see tab for details of this annual publication)

Charles has previously worked with what is now the Valuation Office Agency where, as a senior valuer, he specialised in rural compensation and taxation work in Cheshire, and as a surveyor/land management adviser with the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service in Nottinghamshire and then Cheshire.  In 1990 he joined Harper Adams University College where he has worked in a variety of ground-breaking roles, most recently as Director of the Rural Employer Engagement Development Network.  During this period Charles has also worked with Reading University (Henley Business School), Royal Agricultural College and College of Estate Management in various roles.

This breadth and depth of professional experience and knowledge mean that Charles is much in demand as a speaker and facilitator at CPD events, both public and inhouse.  Last October this included presentation of the first RICS Rural Web Class, followed this Spring by a series of five rural valuation web classes on farm and rural estate valuation as well as a session on the valuation of renewable energy installations.