Labour has turned it's back on the farming community with its latest plans on Agricultural Property Relief.
Labour has, in a single Budget, destroyed any chance of gaining the confidence of country people. Its decision to tax family farmers so they won’t be able to hand on their farms to their sons and daughters undermines the whole basis of the rural economy and rural life. It is fundamentally a betrayal, because Steve Reed, the Secretary of State responsible for agriculture, gave his pledge that Labour had no intention of changing farmers’ tax regime. (Perhaps his resignation letter has been lost in the post.)
This move is also clear evidence of the Government’s ignorance of the facts of the countryside. It claims that small farmers will all be protected, but it hasn’t bothered to do the maths. The average farm in England is just over 200 acres and that is barely large enough to make a living. Only dedication, determination and family commitment makes it possible. Yet most of those small farmers will be caught by this tax. You’d have to have the very smallest of holdings not to be forced to pay the Government for wanting to hand on your family farm to the next generation. That’s despite the fact that it’s only the family working together that makes the whole business possible.
Although all average-size farms will be caught — and many much smaller ones — the Farming Minister, Daniel Zeichner, told the media: ‘Our commitment to farmers and the vital role they play to feed the nation remains steadfast.’ That is simply tosh. He hasn’t even grasped that, by freezing the money available to encourage food production, the Government has already shown its disregard for the importance of food security. It will remind country people that it was Labour that abolished the Ministry of Agriculture and merged it into Defra.
Agromenes had hoped the party had changed, that it would seize the chance after winning all those agricultural seats, from Suffolk Coastal to Pembroke, Camborne to North Northumberland. We all expected something better after the feckless series of ministers under the previous administration. Instead, we have been betrayed by people we hoped and thought had recovered an understanding of farming and the countryside.
It’s not only farmers who have got a raw deal. After the railway unions pocketed huge increases and the Government paved the way for yet more inflationary rises for public-sector workers, the Budget landed the cost on small businesses and none is more exposed than those in the countryside. Many get by on very small budgets and marginal profitability. Small communities and lower incomes don’t provide much elbow room and competition with supermarkets and mail order makes it even more difficult to make a profit. For example, it will cost our local pub another £15,000 a year. The tax on draft beer may have been marginally reduced, but serving it is going to be even more expensive.
That, of course, is the real issue. Sir Keir Starmer promised there would be no tax rises for ‘working people’. The definition of the phrase occasioned a good deal of controversy, but diverted attention from the real distortion. The Government intended to conceal its tax rises from ordinary people, so up went the employer’s National Insurance payments, which didn’t show up in pay packets. Yet it is working people who will pay the price in fewer jobs, higher prices and reduced rural services.
It is not surprising that the Independent Office for Budget Responsibility has said that the Budget will push up inflation and interest rates with a knock-on effect on growth. Next year, when well-paid Tube drivers strike their way to inflationary pay increases, we in the countryside will remember the farmers and small businesses who paid for them.
Agromenes is Country Life’s Countryside Crusader. He writes a column weekly
Agromenes: ‘It is one thing when people recognise what is the right thing to do, but it becomes really game-changing when they see that it’s also the profitable thing to do’
The Countryside Crusader celebrates more positive news about regenerative farming.
Agromenes: From the big things to the little things, there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful
Our Countryside Crusader refuses to be melancholy as the autumn rolls in. Instead, he reveals plenty to be happy about.
Agromenes: The new government is already delivering with aplomb — and in the countryside, it’s all to play for
Our countryside columnist takes a look at the early efforts and impressive ministerial appointments of the new Labour government in
Agromenes: The terrible warnings which must make us take food self-sufficiency seriously again
Country Life's agriculture columnist Agromenes on why we need to learn the lessons of the tragic events of the last
