Farming Families

Earl of Effingham Excerpts

Thursday 21st November 2024 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Effingham (Con)]

My Lords, as many of the 13,000 farmers on the streets of Whitehall flagged on Tuesday, the Government’s policy is a hammer blow to farmers, and taxation into bankruptcy is not sustainable.

I urge the Minister to listen to her own team. The Labour MP Steve Witherden has called on the Government to reveal their modelling so that everyone knows where they stand and can plan accordingly. Defra figures show that 49% of farms are worth more than £1.5 million pounds, and Defra states that there are 70,000 farms more than 200 acres in size, which, according to the CLA, means at current land rates that they will be subject to the new tax. We desperately need transparency and clarification on the model. Please will the Government provide it?

These changes to inheritance tax for family farms will mean that those who I have just highlighted, who have farmed their land for generations, will be unable to afford the tax bill, forcing them to sell their farm. Will the Minister, who I know to be a friend to our farming communities, say what impact the Government expect this policy to have on the mental well-being of our farmers, who are already at a higher risk of suicide than the rest of the population? Will she commit to publishing the Government’s data on suicides, including among farmers and business owners, for the past few years and on an ongoing basis?

His Majesty’s Official Opposition are committed to reversing the family farms tax if the Government refuse to listen to farmers before the next general election. These rules will be extremely challenging for farming families when the current owners of farms die, and many noble Lords have pressed the Government on this point already. Tenant farmers farm one-third of the farmed land in England. Can the Minister confirm whether the impact assessment for the changes to inheritance tax specifically addressed the effect these changes would have on the number of tenant farmers in the UK?

Regarding fertiliser, in the Budget the Government confirmed that carbon pricing will be applied to fertiliser from 1 January 2027. Does the Minister accept that this will see fertiliser prices rise, hammering our hard-working farmers, many of whom already struggle to turn a profit each year?

Given that this tax will hit many families who have to secure other incomes to keep their farms and smallholdings going, does the Minister accept that this tax will see many farms sold to larger corporates and foreign businesses? What impact do the Government expect this to have on our countryside?

Finally, what might the Minister say to a young woman or man today who has already spent years helping their parents working on the family farm who has just seen their future dashed by the Government’s policy? What hope does a young woman or man in that position have now?