I come from a rural community – brought up in Shaftesbury Dorset and I remember my Dad saying you’d never hear a happy farmer or see a poor one. That’s not quite true as many farmers go bust , especially those who rent their land (a good proportion) and the landowners are increasingly investors whose owners are in the happy position of enjoying 100% inheritance tax relief.
So I nearly choked on my muesli when I got an email from Conservative shadow minister Steve Barclay
|
Henry, Labour have betrayed farmers and introduced a Family Farm Tax. Removing inheritance tax relief for family farms will make it harder for farmers to pass their holdings onto their children and grandchildren. Meaning many will have to sell their farms. Which in turn will reduce the amount of farming land in the UK. And make us more reliant on imports, undermining our country’s food security. The National Farmer’s Union have said the Budget ‘threatens family farms’ and will ‘make producing food more expensive’. So please help us stop the Family Farm Tax by signing our petition. I have also received a number of mini-blogs on twitter from Dan Niedle  hard working farmers |
|---|
|
Labour have betrayed working people, they’ve betrayed business owners, they’ve betrayed pensioners and now they’ve betrayed farmers.
|
|---|
Minutes later this thread arrived, painting a different picture
Why 500? Because this table shows only 500 farm estates claimed agricultural property relief (APR) of more than £1m in 2022. pic.twitter.com/EDSKjDUmeG
— Dan Neidle (@DanNeidle) October 31, 2024
That could mean as few as 100 farms per year are affected. And the 20% tax is only on the excess over the threshold, so for most of the 100, the additional tax will be reasonably small. Insure against it when you’re young(ish). Give some/all to your kids when you get older.
— Dan Neidle (@DanNeidle) October 31, 2024
And the data shows that most of the cost of the tax increase will be borne by a few very large estates. In 2022 2% of agricultural estates – just 37 – claimed an average of £6m.
That’s what this is really about – not 70,000 farms. So let’s drop the hyperbolic fake stats. pic.twitter.com/nUaKld0opn
— Dan Neidle (@DanNeidle) October 31, 2024
I’m with Dan Niedle
she knows
Well, said, Henry – I couldn’t agree more.
Hmm – I think the practical result will be that farms in developable areas (therefore with substantial land value) will be broken up (in order to pay the IHT) and at least partly built on. I’m not sure that’s what we need as a matter of agricultural policy.