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The changes to inheritance tax (see previous post for full details) mean many farmers will be paying it for the first time, which the government believes is fair.
But farmers are furious, and National Farmers’ Union president Tom Bradshaw tells us why.
He explains that margins on food production are “so low,” and that “all available cash for the future has been reinvested in the farms.”
“One of the immediate changes is that farmers will have to put money into their pensions, which many have not done before,” he continues.
“They will have to have a life insurance policy in case of sudden death. And unfortunately, that money that would previously have been invested in producing the country’s food was for the future.”
But the “very serious unintended consequence” is the human impact, he says, explaining that the immediacy of the rule change means that some farmers who have “given everything to produce this country’s food” simply cannot plan for the changes.
“That’s the betrayal I’m talking about. The human impact of this is simply not acceptable,” he says.
Asked whether he sympathizes with the government and the need to get the public finances in order, Mr Bradshaw said: “I sympathize with the fact that they had to balance the books.”
But he says the money that will be raised from the policy should not be taken from “the people who will produce the country’s food,” pointing to wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as climate change.
“We have a government that says food security is a critical part of national security, yet they have pulled away from the industry that will invest in food security in the future.”
He adds that he has “tremendous sympathy for the very, very challenging situations that many people are facing across the country,” but this “just feels like this is an incredibly blunt instrument that really doesn’t address the future of this problem.” takes the long view. country”.