Rachel Reeves warned ‘catastrophic’ choice might decimate UK farms | Politics | News | EUROtoday
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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 campaign demanding that Rachel Reeves U-turn on her “spiteful and senseless” inheritance tax raid that dangers decimating farming communities throughout the nation.
We are demanding that Labour scraps its plan to introduce inheritance tax on farms value greater than £1million.
MPs, celebrities and agricultural stress teams final evening backed the Express’s Save Britain’s Family Farms marketing campaign.
Critics have warned the IHT transfer that Labour introduced in final week’s price range means it will not be attainable for 1000’s of farmers to go on their companies to kids and family.
The impact could be to not solely destroy household farms however could be devastating for rural communities, hit the value of meals and harm the UK’s meals safety and create spiralling unemployment within the countryside.
Former surroundings secretary Steve Barclay stated: “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)
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“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 surroundings spokesman, stated: “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 gathering with surroundings secretary Steve Reed and the Treasury yesterday (MON), National Farmers Union President Tom Bradshaw stated: “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 impression of Labour’s Budget will likely be “catastrophic for the face of the countryside”.
Will, 42, is the third technology to work on his household farm – which means he has benefited from inheritance tax breaks from the agricultural property aid (APR) coverage which is about to be axed underneath Labour plans.
He now has his circle of relatives with three kids aged between 10 and 14 and farms roughly 1,500 acres of the land the place he was raised in East Sussex.
His holding is especially arable, with a small beef herd, underneath a mixture of owned, rented and shared farming agreements.
But Ms Reeves’ choice to hit household farmers with a recent inheritance tax invoice would make it tougher for Will to go the holding onto his younger household sooner or later.
And he even warned Britain’s meals safety might be threatened by the Chancellor’s “family farm tax”.
He stated: “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 harm her insurance policies could have on farming given the “unique” challenges it faces, he argued.
The farmer hit out at Sir Keir, saying the PM had made false guarantees through the election to the agricultural neighborhood.
He stated: “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 focus on why Ms Reeves had misunderstood the way in which farming and agricultural companies labored.
He stated: “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 entrance of Parliament throughout a protest earlier this yr (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 introduced within the Budget, inheritance tax will likely be charged at 20% on farms value greater than £1 million, though the Chancellor has stated that in some instances the edge might in follow be about £3 million.
The choice has sparked backlash from farming and countryside communities, with plans for a protest in London on November 19.There is a discrepancy inside the Government about what number of farmers are prone to be impacted by the change.
The NFU, utilizing figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), advised it might be as many as 70% of farms whereas the Treasury’s statistics say it’s underneath 30%.
Estimates have advised as much as 70,000 farms might be impacted, though the Treasury claims that 500 farms will likely be affected per yr.
Farmers are at a considerably greater threat of experiencing psychological well being points in comparison with the final inhabitants, with research exhibiting elevated charges of melancholy, nervousness and suicide.
This is commonly attributed to the distinctive stressors of their occupation together with lengthy working hours, monetary instability, climate dependence, and social isolation in rural areas
Reform’s MP Rupert Lowe stated: “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, advised how farmers had been “shafted” by Labour.
Broadcaster Kirstie Allsopp stated 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 safety minister Daniel Zeichner to the Commons yesterday (MON) to reply questions on the difficulty.
He insisted adjustments to farmers’ inheritance tax won’t be withdrawn because the Budget “stands in its entirety”.
Mr Zeichner stated: “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 stated the Government ought to launch a “full assessment” of their choice to reform the agricultural property aid from inheritance tax, shadow minister Robbie Moore has stated.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1971544/rachel-reeves-farmers-inheritance-tax