Rachel Reeves has claimed that “only a very small number of agricultural properties” will be affected by the changes to inheritance tax.
UNITED KINGDOM, London, 04th November 2024 Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, seen at Downin (Image: Thomas Krych / Story Picture Agency)
The Daily Express has launched a crusade demanding that Rachel Reeves U-turn on her “spiteful and senseless” inheritance tax raid that risks decimating farming communities across the country.
We are demanding that Labour scraps its plan to introduce inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1million.
MPs, celebrities and agricultural pressure groups last night backed the Express’s Save Britain’s Family Farms campaign.
Critics have warned the IHT move that Labour announced in last week’s budget means it would no longer be possible for thousands of farmers to pass on their businesses to children and relatives.
The effect would be to not only destroy family farms but would be devastating for rural communities, hit the price of food and damage the UK’s food security and create spiralling unemployment in the countryside.
Former environment secretary Steve Barclay said: “Labour’s family farms tax will be fatal for many rural businesses and flawed for shoppers too.
“It undermines many farm businesses with generations of local expertise, risking our food security as shops become more reliant on imports.
Concerned farmer Will Ashby from Peasmarsh in East Sussex (Image: Adam Gerrard / Sunday Express)
“At a time of growing volatility from climate change and conflict around the globe this policy is spiteful and senseless.
“It shows Labour neither care nor understand our rural communities.”
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat’s environment spokesman, said: “The government’s proposed family farm tax is a yet another blow for rural communities and farmers.
“For years, farmers have been hammered by botched trade deals and a fall in their incomes due to the Conservative Party’s shameful neglect of our rural communities.
“For the new government to turn around and deliver yet another hammer blow to them is unthinkable.
“Instead, they must listen to our farmers, scrap this family farm tax and take on the Liberal Democrats proposals of an extra £1 billion a year in support for farmers.
“Anything less risks losing the next generation of family farmers for good.”
Following a meeting with environment secretary Steve Reed and the Treasury yesterday (MON), National Farmers Union President Tom Bradshaw said: “With Defra data showing two thirds of farms could be affected, it was good to hear that the Treasury would look at the discrepancy in figures.
“I also asked if there were plans for an impact assessment of this policy on homegrown food production. Because if farms are being broken up and sold, British food will be hit. There is a very real threat to our long-term food security because there is no incentive to invest for the future.
Farmer warns the impact will be “catastrophic for the face of the countryside”.
Concerned farmer Will Ashby from Peasmarsh in East Sussex (Image: DX)
Farmer Will Ashby has warned the impact of Labour’s Budget will be “catastrophic for the face of the countryside”.
Will, 42, is the third generation to work on his family farm – meaning he has benefited from inheritance tax breaks from the agricultural property relief (APR) policy which is set to be axed under Labour plans.
He now has his own family with three children aged between 10 and 14 and farms approximately 1,500 acres of the land where he was raised in East Sussex.
His holding is mainly arable, with a small beef herd, under a mix of owned, rented and shared farming agreements.
But Ms Reeves’ decision to hit family farmers with a fresh inheritance tax bill would make it more difficult for Will to pass the holding onto his young family in the future.
And he even warned Britain’s food security could be threatened by the Chancellor’s “family farm tax”.
He said: “The impact of the Budget will be catastrophic for the face of the countryside, gone will be all our family farms that make our green and pleasant land the place that we hold so dear, in its place will be a commercial wasteland swept up by corporations who will only survive themselves by milking the land for all it is worth.”
Rachel Reeves has miscalculated the damage her policies will have on farming given the “unique” challenges it faces, he argued.
The farmer hit out at Sir Keir, saying the PM had made false promises during the election to the rural community.
He said: “I am incredibly angry that the Government don’t seem to have any concept about the agricultural sector in Britain despite their rhetoric prior to the election, it seems staggering to me that Keir Starmer is happy this early on in his tenure to allow all his vote-winning promises to become lies.”
He went on to highlight why Ms Reeves had misunderstood the way farming and agricultural businesses worked.
He said: “Agriculture is unique in that it is hugely capital intensive, and very low income, therefore in order to preserve it and make it viable for future generations it has to be subject to these reliefs.
“Ignore this at the peril of food security and health, because believe me British Farmers are some of the best at what we do and the food assurances and quality produce that we provide will simply not be available from imported goods that we will have to come to rely on.”
A line of tractors are seen in front of Parliament during a protest earlier this year (Image: Getty)
“With businesses already running on unsustainably tight margins – mass flooding meant that many haven’t turned a profit this year – compounded with further costs from National Insurance and National Living Wage increases, farming families have nothing left to give.”
Under plans announced in the Budget, inheritance tax will be charged at 20% on farms worth more than £1 million, although the Chancellor has said that in some cases the threshold could in practice be about £3 million.
The decision has sparked backlash from farming and countryside communities, with plans for a protest in London on November 19.There is a discrepancy within the Government about how many farmers are likely to be impacted by the change.
The NFU, using figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), suggested it could be as many as 70% of farms while the Treasury’s statistics say it is under 30%.
Estimates have suggested up to 70,000 farms could be impacted, although the Treasury claims that 500 farms will be affected per year.
Farmers are at a significantly higher risk of experiencing mental health issues compared to the general population, with studies showing elevated rates of depression, anxiety and suicide.
This is often attributed to the unique stressors of their occupation including long working hours, financial instability, weather dependence, and social isolation in rural areas
Reform’s MP Rupert Lowe said: “Hardworking farmers are the backbone of our society. This budget, along with all its other faults, is guaranteed to have a catastrophic impact on rural communities around the country.
“Reducing Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and raising inheritance tax will lead to record-breaking farm closures, increased debt, and forced sales to cover tax liabilities – it is a cruel attack on grieving farming families.
“The Tory and Labour track records of disregarding the needs of rural communities must come to an end.”
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Jeremy Clarkson, who presents the TV programme Clarkson’s Farm, told how farmers had been “shafted” by Labour.
Broadcaster Kirstie Allsopp said the Chancellor had destroyed farmers’ “ability to pass farms onto their children, and broken the future of all our great estates”.
Tory MP Aphra Brandreth: “Labour have shown that they do not understand rural communities or how the countryside works.
“As an MP representing a constituency including a large rural area, I feel very strongly about the issues that the ‘Save Britain’s Family Farms’ campaign raises.
“Farmers work incredibly hard. They provide stewardship for the countryside and our environment, support the local economy and literally put food on our tables.
“So far, this Labour Government have punished farmers at every turn. I am proud to be supporting the ‘Save Britain’s Family Farms’ campaign for the many family farms and agricultural businesses across Chester South and Eddisbury and the country, building on the work we have already done in holding this Labour Government to account.”
MPs summoned Food security minister Daniel Zeichner to the Commons yesterday (MON) to answer questions on the issue.
He insisted changes to farmers’ inheritance tax will not be withdrawn as the Budget “stands in its entirety”.
Mr Zeichner said: “What I said earlier was that on my very many visits around the country, I consistently found people telling me that they were concerned about the way in which the system was being abused, in which people were coming in and buying up land over their heads. That is what I said, and that’s what I stand by.
“But in terms of these measures, I’m afraid this is a Budget that stands in its entirety, and the whole country needs stability, so it will stand.”
Meanwhile shadow minister Robbie Moore said the Government should release a “full assessment” of their decision to reform the agricultural property relief from inheritance tax, shadow minister Robbie Moore has said.
