The Government has refused to budge after ministers reportedly refused any suggestion of compromise over the family farm tax in a meeting with representatives from the sector.
Exchequer Secretary James Murray and Food Security Minister Daniel Zeichner called in representatives from across the farming sector including the TFA (Tenant Farmers Association), CLA (Country Land and Business Association) and CAAV (Central Association of Agricultural Valuers), and the wider UK farming unions.
Prior to the meeting, the combined Farming Unions released a statement saying: “Across every part of agriculture and its associated industries, and across every part of the UK, the message to the Treasury is the same – work with us to find solutions. Be prepared to listen not only to the UK’s farmers and growers, but also to food retailers and other companies in the food supply chain who have all said there must be change to this policy.
“We come tomorrow to discuss proposals for that change that we think can help us move forward together in protecting British farming, British family-run farm businesses and, crucially, British food.”
However, the representatives were told that the government had no interest in compromise, a new statement from the NFU states.
Speaking after the meeting, NFU president Tom Bradshaw said: “Disappointed doesn’t cover how I feel after this meeting. Today, we have repeated our concerns about the impact on farming families; they don’t care. On the impact on families who can’t afford vast tax bills coming their way on the death of a loved one; they don’t care. On the elderly – the most vulnerable people in our farming community – who feel they are now a burden on their family; they don’t care.
“This morally bankrupt position sits with this government, and, without change, ministers will reap the consequences.
“For the 70 million people living on these islands, food security matters. It matters more given the ever-increasing geopolitical uncertainty. While this is shocking for me to say, the only conclusion I can come to is this government doesn’t care about British food production. Is this the same government which in its manifesto said food security is national security?
“We went into this meeting fully understanding the fiscal hole this government must plug, and we went into this meeting to offer a solution, a solution which has been suggested by other tax experts where the inheritance tax policy is based on a claw back mechanism.
“Put simply, farmers don’t get money when they inherit, they get the farm, the business asset, and often the debt. Any money they do get, they get when they sell. So, our suggestion is based on that premise. Our suggestion, which is almost revenue neutral meaning the Chancellor gets her planned income, is that if an inherited farm is sold then inheritance tax gets paid. Crucially, this would allow family farms that want to continue to produce the nation’s food to do so, while giving the Treasury what it wants.
“We also need to be clear, the current talk that the £500 million this generates, which will be raised on the backs of hard-working and hard-pressed farmers, will rescue the NHS is nonsense. This amount will fund the NHS for a day. It’s disingenuous for ministers to repeat this untruth.
“Despite the Chancellor calling for alternatives, and today the UK food sector went collectively to share those, I am hugely disappointed there was no response from Treasury today, no acknowledgement that this could be done better. This is the same Treasury department which admits it has not yet carried out impact assessments on its current policy. Let’s remember, this policy has now been challenged by farming unions and agriculture representatives from across the UK, it has been challenged by the independent Office of Budget Responsibility, by the Efra Select Committee, by tax advisors to the government, and recently the National Preparedness Committee has reminded us that UK food security is in a precarious state.
“And every single major food retailer in the UK has also called for change. Why? Because they can see what this will do to the security of the supply of their products.
“This is a mess, but there is still time for Treasury to review. I urge them to look at the proposal put to them by all the major farming organisations today. It will raise the money needed. It is a way forward which is fair, removes the huge risk to British agriculture, including significant emotional and financial pressures, and delivers for UK food security, something the government continues to insist is a priority.
“I want to thank NFU members for their continued support and I thank the public who continue to stand by British farming, with 275,000 people signing our petition. Thank you to those back-benchers who have come out to support their rural constituencies and thank you to those political parties which have pledged to dump this awful policy if they’re elected. From what we are told, the Chancellor has refused even to meet with her own worried MPs on this issue.
“Heads in the sand, fingers in ears, zero empathy. What a way for a government to behave.”
‘Tax breaks’
It comes after controversial comments from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose visit to a housing development was disrupted by a farmer-organised protest.
Following this, he made a statement saying that ‘you cannot have NHS waiting lists come down while maintaining ‘tax breaks’ for farmers’.
This has rightly caused anger from across the industry. In response, CLA president Victoria Vyvyan said: “This reckless and irresponsible outburst shows the Prime Minister does not understand the outcome of his own policy.
“His inheritance tax reforms have forced farmers and other family businesses to cancel planned investment, putting tens of thousands of jobs at risk. There will be less money going into the exchequer not more, and public services will suffer as a result.
“Farmers want to feed the nation and protect the environment. The public know that and respect farmers for it – and they will rightly see straight through this latest attack.”
However, Mr Bradshaw called for calmer heads to prevail, and distanced the NFU from the offending protest.
“However high feelings are running in the farming community, today’s actions by a group which deliberately disrupted a major speech by the Prime Minister were misjudged and, clearly, have been massively counter-productive.
“This was not an NFU event. Since last October, the NFU has been leading a campaign to mitigate the damaging and inhumane impacts of the proposed changes to inheritance tax on farms, building independent evidence, huge public support and political backing across Parliament.
“Whilst we understand, and share, the Prime Minister’s frustrations today, he is not right to say that Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) are “a tax break for farmers”. He knows they are policies designed to ensure family farms can stay in business and enable them to deliver for the nation. It’s also not reasonable to suggest that raising between nothing and £500 million – the varying estimates of what the new tax will bring in – will determine the future of the NHS or UK schools.
“The NFU has spent months trying to meet the Chancellor, more recently to share and discuss what we believe is a revenue neutral change to the family farm tax which helps the government in its aim of raising money, but also protects family farms and removes the elderly from the eye of this storm. We have meetings with the Exchequer Secretary next week where we hope that, despite today’s events, he will welcome and consider these proposals properly.
“Events like today’s are not the way to achieve policy change. The NFU represents 44,000 farming businesses in England and Wales and we will speak with their voices next week – calmly and constructively.”