Opinion: The fight for farming's future has only just begun
FARMERS ARE LANDOWNERS
Zoe Leach
NFU
Sat 23 November 2024
Zoe Leach, East regional director for the National Farmers' Union (NFU) (Image: NFU)
The day of action in London was spectacular – but the fight for farming’s future has only just begun says Zoe Leach, NFU regional director for the East of England.
This week I had the pleasure of attending a very special day in London in which farmers and the public united to fight for the future of the farming industry.
On Tuesday, the NFU (National Farmers' Union) held a mass lobbying event where 1,800 of our members, including many from East Anglia, met with their MPs at Church House, Westminster, and in parliament, to highlight why the government must reconsider its planned changes to inheritance tax.
At the same time, thousands of farmers, including many NFU members, joined the public and marched through Westminster to make their feelings clear that the ill-thought-out changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR), announced in the recent budget, must be reconsidered.
Farmers at the protest rally in London on November 19 (Image: Chris HIll) These changes are based on bad data and with no consultation with the farming industry.
They threaten the future of family farms and the entire rural economy, which is so vital to this region.
The fact that there is such a huge gap between the Treasury’s calculations that 27pc of farms in England will be impacted by the changes and Defra’s own figures, which state that more than 65pc will be hit, show just what a mess they have made of this.
In reality, we believe the changes to APR and BPR could severely impact more than 70pc of farms in England.
The government’s changes to inheritance tax, which are due to come into effect from April 2026, mean farm businesses will need to pay a tax rate of 20pc on agricultural assets valued over £1m.
Just because a farm business has valuable assets, it does not mean that farmers themselves are wealthy. The average farmer’s return on capital invested is less than 1pc.
Their farmland is merely the means for farmers and growers to produce food for the public.
These assets only become profit when farmland is sold off, making farms less viable and jeopardising farmers’ ability to grow traceable and affordable food.
So, if the changes go ahead, many small and medium-sized family farm businesses will have no choice but to sell up, just to pay the tax bill, and that will have repercussions for future generations.
The Labour government declared in its manifesto that "food security is national security".
But farmers’ ability to deliver this will be severely compromised by the changes to APR and BPR.
They will also devastate rural economies, which are so reliant on farming, and remove some of the fantastic work being done by farmers to support the environment and protect the great British countryside.
This is clearly not what the government intended when it announced this policy, but there is still time to reconsider and work with the NFU and its members to put things right.
If the government was in any doubt about the strength of feeling from farmers and the public in opposition to these plans, the spectacular day of action in London on Tuesday has surely put an end to that.
The National Farmers' Union (NFU) held a mass lobbying event with MPs in Westminster on November 19 (Image: NFU) There is so much anger and so much passion to protect our great industry, but the behaviour of everyone who took part in the NFU’s mass lobbying event and the rally was exemplary.
Everyone made their case in a passionate, respectful and dignified way.
To be there and witness farmers and growers fight for their industry in such a way was a pleasure to see, although we wish it wasn’t necessary.
I am also very proud of all the NFU staff, including my NFU East regional staff team and the group secretaries for the huge amount of work that went into organising the mass lobbying event and ensuring that it ran smoothly.
But the government should be in no doubt that this does not end here.
Tuesday’s day of action in London was not the culmination of everyone’s efforts, merely the start.
Farmers, by their nature, are determined and resilient and, with a huge amount of public support behind them, will continue to show to the government how they have got things so badly wrong and must reverse this damaging policy.
All our futures depend on it.
Treasury didn’t consider real working farms when assessing tractor tax, NFU says
Sat 23 November 2024
Zoe Leach, East regional director for the National Farmers' Union (NFU) (Image: NFU)
The day of action in London was spectacular – but the fight for farming’s future has only just begun says Zoe Leach, NFU regional director for the East of England.
This week I had the pleasure of attending a very special day in London in which farmers and the public united to fight for the future of the farming industry.
On Tuesday, the NFU (National Farmers' Union) held a mass lobbying event where 1,800 of our members, including many from East Anglia, met with their MPs at Church House, Westminster, and in parliament, to highlight why the government must reconsider its planned changes to inheritance tax.
At the same time, thousands of farmers, including many NFU members, joined the public and marched through Westminster to make their feelings clear that the ill-thought-out changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR), announced in the recent budget, must be reconsidered.
Farmers at the protest rally in London on November 19 (Image: Chris HIll) These changes are based on bad data and with no consultation with the farming industry.
They threaten the future of family farms and the entire rural economy, which is so vital to this region.
The fact that there is such a huge gap between the Treasury’s calculations that 27pc of farms in England will be impacted by the changes and Defra’s own figures, which state that more than 65pc will be hit, show just what a mess they have made of this.
In reality, we believe the changes to APR and BPR could severely impact more than 70pc of farms in England.
The government’s changes to inheritance tax, which are due to come into effect from April 2026, mean farm businesses will need to pay a tax rate of 20pc on agricultural assets valued over £1m.
Just because a farm business has valuable assets, it does not mean that farmers themselves are wealthy. The average farmer’s return on capital invested is less than 1pc.
Their farmland is merely the means for farmers and growers to produce food for the public.
These assets only become profit when farmland is sold off, making farms less viable and jeopardising farmers’ ability to grow traceable and affordable food.
So, if the changes go ahead, many small and medium-sized family farm businesses will have no choice but to sell up, just to pay the tax bill, and that will have repercussions for future generations.
The Labour government declared in its manifesto that "food security is national security".
But farmers’ ability to deliver this will be severely compromised by the changes to APR and BPR.
They will also devastate rural economies, which are so reliant on farming, and remove some of the fantastic work being done by farmers to support the environment and protect the great British countryside.
This is clearly not what the government intended when it announced this policy, but there is still time to reconsider and work with the NFU and its members to put things right.
If the government was in any doubt about the strength of feeling from farmers and the public in opposition to these plans, the spectacular day of action in London on Tuesday has surely put an end to that.
The National Farmers' Union (NFU) held a mass lobbying event with MPs in Westminster on November 19 (Image: NFU) There is so much anger and so much passion to protect our great industry, but the behaviour of everyone who took part in the NFU’s mass lobbying event and the rally was exemplary.
Everyone made their case in a passionate, respectful and dignified way.
To be there and witness farmers and growers fight for their industry in such a way was a pleasure to see, although we wish it wasn’t necessary.
I am also very proud of all the NFU staff, including my NFU East regional staff team and the group secretaries for the huge amount of work that went into organising the mass lobbying event and ensuring that it ran smoothly.
But the government should be in no doubt that this does not end here.
Tuesday’s day of action in London was not the culmination of everyone’s efforts, merely the start.
Farmers, by their nature, are determined and resilient and, with a huge amount of public support behind them, will continue to show to the government how they have got things so badly wrong and must reverse this damaging policy.
All our futures depend on it.
Treasury didn’t consider real working farms when assessing tractor tax, NFU says
Emma Gatten
THE TELEGRAPH
Fri 22 November 2024
On Tuesday, more than 10,000 farmers took part in a protest in Westminster
Fri 22 November 2024
On Tuesday, more than 10,000 farmers took part in a protest in Westminster
- Paul Grover for the Telegraph
The Treasury failed to consider real working farms when assessing the impact of its tractor tax, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has said.
The Government claimed just 27 per cent of estates will be hit by the 20 per cent inheritance tax on farming assets worth more than £1 million.
It cited data from HMRC on the number of claims for agricultural property relief, the existing exemption, for estates worth more than £1 million in 2021-2022.
But it has not given a figure for how many working farms will be impacted by the policy, referring only to estates that claim the tax break.
In a new analysis, the NFU said the true figure is more like 75 per cent.
It added the data used by the Treasury underestimates the figure because it includes a significant number of plots that would be too small to constitute a working farm.
It pointed out that it is possible to make a claim for inheritance tax relief “on a single field that has been let out”.
More than a quarter of claims in the Treasury data are for estates valued at less than £250,000, which based on land prices would make them just 12 acres in size on average.
“This is clearly too small to be a ‘working farm’ in the conventional sense,” the NFU said.
Working farms produce the vast majority of British food.
Another 23 per cent of the claims are for land just 50 acres in size on average, the NFU calculated, likely to be very small working farms, but mostly let land.
Land can currently avoid inheritance tax if it is used for agricultural purposes, which include trees planted and harvested every 10 years, and stud farms for breeding and rearing horses.
The NFU said the Treasury figures of the impact of the tax in 2026 also fail to take account of the increase in asset values, in particular farmland, in the five years since it took the data.
On Tuesday, more than 10,000 farmers and their supporters took part in a protest against the tax in Westminster.
A petition by the NFU to reverse the tax had gained more than 250,000 signatures by Friday.
The Government has said the effective tax threshold is £3 million for a farming couple and that the tax can be paid back over 10 years.
But the NFU said that low farming incomes mean few farmers will be able to afford the tax bill even over a decade.
“The majority of estates protected by the £1 million threshold are too small to be viable commercial family farms, whereas the majority of medium-sized working farms that will be hit by the liability will not be protected by the 10-year payment window because the resulting payments would still be unmanageably large relative to the economic returns they earn,” the NFU said.
A government spokesman said: “We have been clear since this change was announced that around 500 claims of agricultural and business property relief each year will be impacted – this is based on actual claims data – and even when inheritance tax does kick in, it is effectively at half the rate paid by others.
“It is not possible to accurately infer inheritance tax liability from farm net-worth figures as there are different circumstances affecting each farm, such as who owns it, the nature of ownership, how many people own it and how affairs are planned.”
Rachel Reeves standing firm against U-turn on inheritance tax for farmers
The Treasury failed to consider real working farms when assessing the impact of its tractor tax, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has said.
The Government claimed just 27 per cent of estates will be hit by the 20 per cent inheritance tax on farming assets worth more than £1 million.
It cited data from HMRC on the number of claims for agricultural property relief, the existing exemption, for estates worth more than £1 million in 2021-2022.
But it has not given a figure for how many working farms will be impacted by the policy, referring only to estates that claim the tax break.
In a new analysis, the NFU said the true figure is more like 75 per cent.
It added the data used by the Treasury underestimates the figure because it includes a significant number of plots that would be too small to constitute a working farm.
It pointed out that it is possible to make a claim for inheritance tax relief “on a single field that has been let out”.
More than a quarter of claims in the Treasury data are for estates valued at less than £250,000, which based on land prices would make them just 12 acres in size on average.
“This is clearly too small to be a ‘working farm’ in the conventional sense,” the NFU said.
Working farms produce the vast majority of British food.
Another 23 per cent of the claims are for land just 50 acres in size on average, the NFU calculated, likely to be very small working farms, but mostly let land.
Land can currently avoid inheritance tax if it is used for agricultural purposes, which include trees planted and harvested every 10 years, and stud farms for breeding and rearing horses.
The NFU said the Treasury figures of the impact of the tax in 2026 also fail to take account of the increase in asset values, in particular farmland, in the five years since it took the data.
On Tuesday, more than 10,000 farmers and their supporters took part in a protest against the tax in Westminster.
A petition by the NFU to reverse the tax had gained more than 250,000 signatures by Friday.
The Government has said the effective tax threshold is £3 million for a farming couple and that the tax can be paid back over 10 years.
But the NFU said that low farming incomes mean few farmers will be able to afford the tax bill even over a decade.
“The majority of estates protected by the £1 million threshold are too small to be viable commercial family farms, whereas the majority of medium-sized working farms that will be hit by the liability will not be protected by the 10-year payment window because the resulting payments would still be unmanageably large relative to the economic returns they earn,” the NFU said.
A government spokesman said: “We have been clear since this change was announced that around 500 claims of agricultural and business property relief each year will be impacted – this is based on actual claims data – and even when inheritance tax does kick in, it is effectively at half the rate paid by others.
“It is not possible to accurately infer inheritance tax liability from farm net-worth figures as there are different circumstances affecting each farm, such as who owns it, the nature of ownership, how many people own it and how affairs are planned.”
Rachel Reeves standing firm against U-turn on inheritance tax for farmers
Rowena Mason, Helena Horton and Peter Walker
THE GUARDIAN
Fri 22 November 2024
A Whitehall source said they believed if any U-turn was likely it would have happened before the farmer’s protest this week.
Fri 22 November 2024
A Whitehall source said they believed if any U-turn was likely it would have happened before the farmer’s protest this week.
Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock
Rachel Reeves is holding firm against a U-turn on inheritance tax for farmers, despite the Treasury analysing ways of softening the impact.
The chancellor is understood to be determined not to drop the policy even though some Labour MPs – and even ministers – are worrying about the political fallout that has led to farmers protesting in Westminster this week.
The Treasury has been assessing ways to mitigate the impact of changes, including amending gifting rules for those aged 80 and above so they can pass on their farms to their family without having to live for another seven years.
Officials have also been looking at the impact of changes announced in the budget in October on active small- and medium-sized farms compared with smallholdings.
But one Labour MP said the messaging from the Treasury about a U-turn was “absolutely no, not happening”.
Despite the Treasury’s insistence, some Labour MPs still believe the policy will be softened. A Whitehall source said they believed any full U-turn would have happened already, before the farmers’ protest, but that any future mitigation would be more likely at a fiscal event or spending review “when some of the heat has gone out of the issue”.
Asked about the research into exempting those aged 80 and above from the policy, a No 10 spokesperson said: “We’re committed to implementing the policy as set out in a budget. We’re not considering any mitigations. It was obviously a difficult decision, but the economic situation the government inherited has required us to make tough choices.”
Some in Downing Street continue to argue the backlash from farmers will not present a major problem for the government because Labour voters are largely unaffected. However, other senior Labour figures are concerned about the political and media attention being taken up by the row.
Images of tractors chugging around Parliament Square have dominated the news, while Steve Reed, the environment secretary, was confronted by a farmer at a countryside conference this week arguing his best way of preserving his farm for his children was suicide before it comes into force in 2026.
Keir Starmer has also not escaped a grilling on the subject. He was asked by BBC Radio Lincolnshire: “Do you have a problem with Lincolnshire? Have the people of Lincolnshire upset you in some way?”
Pressed on those who say family farms will be put out of business by the budget, the prime minister said: “Firstly, I do understand their concerns … In the budget, we allocated £5bn over two years to farming. That’s the single biggest amount of money into sustainable food production, plus money for dealing with flooding and the outbreak of disease … On the IHT, obviously, what farmers want to do is make sure the family farm is preserved … In a typical case … the threshold before IHT is £3m. It means the vast majority of farms are completely unaffected.”
Reed has been taking a conciliatory tone with farmers and defending the policy on the airwaves. He met the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) on multiple occasions over the last fortnight, most recently at their mass lobbying event on Tuesday, in an attempt to soothe tensions.
Related: Starmer v farmers – will the government have to backtrack? – podcast
Nevertheless, the NFU has complained that Defra has no real powers over this policy. Downing Street sources confirmed that Reed was only told about the policy on the eve of the budget – in common with many other cabinet ministers who learned about tax changes in their area at the last minute.
Now, the president of the NFU, Tom Bradshaw, is understood to have decided there is no point dealing with Reed over this policy as his department has no decision-making capabilities. The organisation is demanding to meet Reeves, who has so far not seen its representatives personally.
A new Treasury analysis this week showed its workings for how it calculates that 500 farms a year out of about 200,000 will be affected by the policy.
The NFU released its own impact assessment on Thursday finding that small- and medium-sized farms would have their incomes wiped out by tax payments, even if the cap was set at £2m which it would be if the holding was owned by two spouses.
One Labour MP who represents a heavily rural constituency which was Conservative-held until the election, said they had spent much of the last few weeks sitting at the kitchen tables of local farmers who were certain they would be affected by the tax changes, even if they were not caught by the new rules.
Related: What are the key arguments in the farm inheritance tax debate?
“This isn’t the case for everyone, there are some of my local farmers who will be affected, and I don’t think we should hide from the fact of that,” the MP said.
“But what really struck through to me was the confusion caused by people getting information from social media. In part this is because we barely have any good local newspapers any more. In the past, even if you disagreed on policy, there was a shared idea of what the basic facts were. That doesn’t exist now.”
The MP said they felt the Labour government had in part become the conduit for wider anger over issues such as haphazard government support and subsidy schemes, and badly negotiated post-Brexit trade deals: “If you’re a farmer, of course you’re going be angry, because for last 14 years, the government has promised things and not delivered them.”
There was, they accepted, real anger about the inheritance tax changes, with the MP saying it was vital for Labour to be “in full listening mode” to farming voices if they wanted to keep many rural seats at the next election.
“I’m making sure all the time I spend around kitchen tables gives me a message I can take back to the government. And it has struck me how often I’m being asked for my feedback – it does feel like we are listening.”
New polling shows that the general public – including half of Labour voters – support the farmers over the government.
The research, by More in Common, found that 58% said they support the protests, with 24% of Labour voters saying they strongly support them. Just 6% of Labour voters said they strongly opposed the protests.
The director of More In Common, Luke Tryl, said: “Our latest polling suggests further evidence the government may have ended up on the wrong side of public opinion in the row with farmers.”
Rachel Reeves is holding firm against a U-turn on inheritance tax for farmers, despite the Treasury analysing ways of softening the impact.
The chancellor is understood to be determined not to drop the policy even though some Labour MPs – and even ministers – are worrying about the political fallout that has led to farmers protesting in Westminster this week.
The Treasury has been assessing ways to mitigate the impact of changes, including amending gifting rules for those aged 80 and above so they can pass on their farms to their family without having to live for another seven years.
Officials have also been looking at the impact of changes announced in the budget in October on active small- and medium-sized farms compared with smallholdings.
But one Labour MP said the messaging from the Treasury about a U-turn was “absolutely no, not happening”.
Despite the Treasury’s insistence, some Labour MPs still believe the policy will be softened. A Whitehall source said they believed any full U-turn would have happened already, before the farmers’ protest, but that any future mitigation would be more likely at a fiscal event or spending review “when some of the heat has gone out of the issue”.
Asked about the research into exempting those aged 80 and above from the policy, a No 10 spokesperson said: “We’re committed to implementing the policy as set out in a budget. We’re not considering any mitigations. It was obviously a difficult decision, but the economic situation the government inherited has required us to make tough choices.”
Some in Downing Street continue to argue the backlash from farmers will not present a major problem for the government because Labour voters are largely unaffected. However, other senior Labour figures are concerned about the political and media attention being taken up by the row.
Images of tractors chugging around Parliament Square have dominated the news, while Steve Reed, the environment secretary, was confronted by a farmer at a countryside conference this week arguing his best way of preserving his farm for his children was suicide before it comes into force in 2026.
Keir Starmer has also not escaped a grilling on the subject. He was asked by BBC Radio Lincolnshire: “Do you have a problem with Lincolnshire? Have the people of Lincolnshire upset you in some way?”
Pressed on those who say family farms will be put out of business by the budget, the prime minister said: “Firstly, I do understand their concerns … In the budget, we allocated £5bn over two years to farming. That’s the single biggest amount of money into sustainable food production, plus money for dealing with flooding and the outbreak of disease … On the IHT, obviously, what farmers want to do is make sure the family farm is preserved … In a typical case … the threshold before IHT is £3m. It means the vast majority of farms are completely unaffected.”
Reed has been taking a conciliatory tone with farmers and defending the policy on the airwaves. He met the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) on multiple occasions over the last fortnight, most recently at their mass lobbying event on Tuesday, in an attempt to soothe tensions.
Related: Starmer v farmers – will the government have to backtrack? – podcast
Nevertheless, the NFU has complained that Defra has no real powers over this policy. Downing Street sources confirmed that Reed was only told about the policy on the eve of the budget – in common with many other cabinet ministers who learned about tax changes in their area at the last minute.
Now, the president of the NFU, Tom Bradshaw, is understood to have decided there is no point dealing with Reed over this policy as his department has no decision-making capabilities. The organisation is demanding to meet Reeves, who has so far not seen its representatives personally.
A new Treasury analysis this week showed its workings for how it calculates that 500 farms a year out of about 200,000 will be affected by the policy.
The NFU released its own impact assessment on Thursday finding that small- and medium-sized farms would have their incomes wiped out by tax payments, even if the cap was set at £2m which it would be if the holding was owned by two spouses.
One Labour MP who represents a heavily rural constituency which was Conservative-held until the election, said they had spent much of the last few weeks sitting at the kitchen tables of local farmers who were certain they would be affected by the tax changes, even if they were not caught by the new rules.
Related: What are the key arguments in the farm inheritance tax debate?
“This isn’t the case for everyone, there are some of my local farmers who will be affected, and I don’t think we should hide from the fact of that,” the MP said.
“But what really struck through to me was the confusion caused by people getting information from social media. In part this is because we barely have any good local newspapers any more. In the past, even if you disagreed on policy, there was a shared idea of what the basic facts were. That doesn’t exist now.”
The MP said they felt the Labour government had in part become the conduit for wider anger over issues such as haphazard government support and subsidy schemes, and badly negotiated post-Brexit trade deals: “If you’re a farmer, of course you’re going be angry, because for last 14 years, the government has promised things and not delivered them.”
There was, they accepted, real anger about the inheritance tax changes, with the MP saying it was vital for Labour to be “in full listening mode” to farming voices if they wanted to keep many rural seats at the next election.
“I’m making sure all the time I spend around kitchen tables gives me a message I can take back to the government. And it has struck me how often I’m being asked for my feedback – it does feel like we are listening.”
New polling shows that the general public – including half of Labour voters – support the farmers over the government.
The research, by More in Common, found that 58% said they support the protests, with 24% of Labour voters saying they strongly support them. Just 6% of Labour voters said they strongly opposed the protests.
The director of More In Common, Luke Tryl, said: “Our latest polling suggests further evidence the government may have ended up on the wrong side of public opinion in the row with farmers.”
Elderly farmers pressured into ‘suicide window’ by inheritance tax changes
Camilla Turner
THE TELEGRAPH
Sat 23 November 2024
Farmers in protest at the Houses of Parliament over inheritance tax raid
Ministers have been accused of creating a “suicide window” for elderly farmers who feel staying alive is a “burden” on their families because of inheritance tax changes.
Farmers have told The Telegraph that their older relatives feel the “honourable” thing to do would be to end their life before April 2026, when the Government’s tax raid comes into effect, so they can pass on their estate intact to the next generation.
Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, sparked a backlash in the farming community by placing a 20 per cent inheritance tax on farmers’ assets worth more than £1 million in her first Budget.
Previously, tax breaks designed to allow family farms to pass down the generations were exempt from the 40 per cent duty.
Farmers argue that many will now have to sell part of their land to release the cash to pay the inheritance tax bill, making the farm commercially unviable, which would mean having to wind up the business altogether.
Sat 23 November 2024
Farmers in protest at the Houses of Parliament over inheritance tax raid
Ministers have been accused of creating a “suicide window” for elderly farmers who feel staying alive is a “burden” on their families because of inheritance tax changes.
Farmers have told The Telegraph that their older relatives feel the “honourable” thing to do would be to end their life before April 2026, when the Government’s tax raid comes into effect, so they can pass on their estate intact to the next generation.
Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, sparked a backlash in the farming community by placing a 20 per cent inheritance tax on farmers’ assets worth more than £1 million in her first Budget.
Previously, tax breaks designed to allow family farms to pass down the generations were exempt from the 40 per cent duty.
Farmers argue that many will now have to sell part of their land to release the cash to pay the inheritance tax bill, making the farm commercially unviable, which would mean having to wind up the business altogether.
Oliver Harrison, a fifth generation arable farmer from Prescot, Merseyside, and one of the organisers of last week’s London protest, said he has spoken to multiple farmers who now feel like they are placing a burden on their family by staying alive.
“It’s horrendous, what government incentivises people to be dead?” he said.
“If you are getting on in life in your 80s, you’ve worked all your life to build it up for your children, and then someone makes it so that it’s got to be given up for a tax bill – a lifetime’s work or several generations’ work can all be undone with one careless Budget.”
He urged Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Reeves to “own the problem you’ve started and look for a solution”. He added: “Have a look at the unintended consequences of incentivising old people to be dead. Be human here.”
Farmers who know they will live for another seven years can give their farm to their relatives tax-free. But those who are not certain they will live this long argue that the only way to ensure they can pass on their farm to the next generation would be to die before the changes come into effect.
Many older farmers fear the only way of preserving their family businesses could be suicide, campaigners say - John F Scott/E+
The Telegraph spoke to a female farmer in the south-west who said her own father had talked about ending his life in the next eighteen months.
The fifth-generation farmer said: “The Government has either deliberately or unwittingly created a suicide window where farmers are incentivised to kill themselves. I can understand a government doing this accidentally. But any government that is aware of it and does not act to close it is not morally capable of running the country.”
“My father has spent decades farming, he is out in all weather. He is now saying he should be dead by April 2026, because that is the way to protect his life’s work. It is just horrific.
“My father’s case is not unusual. This is causing anxiety for a lot of families out there. People are feeling pressurised almost, they are feeling that this is the honourable thing for their family, to protect their family, so as not to land their children with a huge inheritance tax bill.”
‘Horrible pressures and huge nerves’
Farming groups have been calling for it to be made easier for farmers aged over 80 to pass their estates down without landing a huge inheritance tax bill.
However, the Treasury has denied that it is considering this move, which would water down the Government’s inheritance tax raid on farmers.
Dominic Armstrong, a 59-year-old farmer from West Berkshire, said: “The suicide window is the talk among farmers from Northumberland to Hampshire down to Cornwall. Children are worried their parents will do something stupid to save them.
“Suddenly, there are horrible pressures and huge nerves about what people are considering. Can you think of any government in the free world forcing people to make that sort of choice? It is beyond despicable.”
Last week, Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, was confronted by a farmer at a conference who said the “one sure way” he could avoid the Government’s “farm tax” was to “kill myself”.
Steve Reed at the Country Land and Business Association conference, where the Environment Secretary was confronted by a farmer who warned of suicides - James Manning/PA Wire
At the Country Land and Business Association conference, Tom Allen-Stevens, an Oxfordshire arable farmer, told Mr Reed he faces a £400,000 bill, which he “cannot afford”.
“If I was elderly, infirm or I had mental health issues and financial worries that is an option I would seriously consider,” he said.
“How many of the most vulnerable will have to take their lives before you and Rachel Reeves understand the wretchedness of the policy you have put upon us?”
A Government spokesman said: “We recognise the concerns among our farming communities. Our commitment to farmers remains steadfast – we have committed £5 billion to the farming budget over two years, including more money than ever for sustainable food production.
“Our reform to Agricultural and Business Property Relief will impact around 500 estates a year. For these estates, inheritance tax will be at half the rate paid by others, with 10 years to pay the liability back interest-free.
“This is a fair and balanced approach that protects the family farm while also fixing the public services that we all rely on.”
No comments:
Post a Comment