"Most of us want to believe that the countryside belongs to small-scale farmers... But most of this country is owned by people like the Duke of Westminster."
by TLE
2024-12-02
Huge swathes of farmland in England belong to just 2,500 owners, it has been revealed.
Despite suggestions that 70,000 farms could be affected by Rachel Reeves’ inheritance tax on farms, new data suggests the burden will largely rest on the shoulders of the biggest landowners.
There are more than 100,000 farm holdings in England, covering 22 million acres in total.
But the Defra data show just 2,568 very large farms own or manage 5.6 million acres – or 26 per cent of all the farmland in England.
Previous research by Mr Shrubsole for his book Who Owns England? found some of the wealthiest people in the country are among them.
They include the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, who controls more than 270,000 acres across Scotland and England, and the 12th Duke of Northumberland, Ralph Percy, who owns 132,000 acres in the North East of England.
One farm owner opposing the Chancellor’s inheritance tax plans is billionaire Sir James Dyson. The vacuum entrepreneur, 77, owns 35,000 acres in Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset through Dyson Farming.
Guy Shrubsole, author of Who Owns England? and The Lie of the Land, said: “The statistic that a quarter of the farmland in England belongs to just 2,500 farms is staggering. I’ve known for a long time that land ownership in England is very unequal. In my book Who Owns England? I concluded that 1 per cent of the population owns half of England.
“I was wrong. These latest figures suggest it’s far, far less than that.
“Most of us want to believe that the countryside belongs to small-scale farmers – like my grandparents, who farmed in Cornwall.
“But most of this country is owned by people like the Duke of Westminster.”
2024-12-02
Huge swathes of farmland in England belong to just 2,500 owners, it has been revealed.
Despite suggestions that 70,000 farms could be affected by Rachel Reeves’ inheritance tax on farms, new data suggests the burden will largely rest on the shoulders of the biggest landowners.
There are more than 100,000 farm holdings in England, covering 22 million acres in total.
But the Defra data show just 2,568 very large farms own or manage 5.6 million acres – or 26 per cent of all the farmland in England.
Previous research by Mr Shrubsole for his book Who Owns England? found some of the wealthiest people in the country are among them.
They include the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, who controls more than 270,000 acres across Scotland and England, and the 12th Duke of Northumberland, Ralph Percy, who owns 132,000 acres in the North East of England.
One farm owner opposing the Chancellor’s inheritance tax plans is billionaire Sir James Dyson. The vacuum entrepreneur, 77, owns 35,000 acres in Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset through Dyson Farming.
Guy Shrubsole, author of Who Owns England? and The Lie of the Land, said: “The statistic that a quarter of the farmland in England belongs to just 2,500 farms is staggering. I’ve known for a long time that land ownership in England is very unequal. In my book Who Owns England? I concluded that 1 per cent of the population owns half of England.
“I was wrong. These latest figures suggest it’s far, far less than that.
“Most of us want to believe that the countryside belongs to small-scale farmers – like my grandparents, who farmed in Cornwall.
“But most of this country is owned by people like the Duke of Westminster.”
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