Farming Families

Earl of Shrewsbury Excerpts

Thursday 21st November 2024 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Shrewsbury (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, on securing this important debate and making such a powerful speech. I declare my interest as a member of the National Farmers’ Union. In addition, my eldest son is a land agent and my youngest son is a poultry farmer.

It is vital that young people are encouraged into the farming industry. They are the seed corn of the future for farming. Becoming a tenant farmer is often the first step into the industry for a young hopeful. In the past, council-owned smallholdings have played a significant role in this process, but over the years the number of these holdings has diminished as councils have needed to draw in their horns and realise capital assets. Many hopefuls rely on becoming tenants of private landlords. Indeed, tenant farmers look after over one-third of England’s farmland and are thus vital to food production.

Now, thanks to this Budget, they will face additional obstacles placed in their path. In this Budget, delinked farm payments have been capped from next year at £8,000, which will inevitably make it more difficult for tenants to pay their rent. The changes to employers’ national insurance contributions will make employing a farm worker more expensive. In addition, the announced changes to APR and BPR may well force landlords to take tenanted land back in hand and sell it to pay their IHT liability.

The incentive for landlords to invest in and improve their tenanted farm will be severely compromised. Who in their right mind would wish to enhance the value of their property and thus risk a higher tax bill? The banks will be far less inclined to lend to farmers and landlords—especially to tenant farmers.

Both the Government and, in particular, the Secretary of State Steve Reed—I listened to his speech to the CLA conference earlier today—have demonstrated that they are unsupportive of, and uninterested in, either the agricultural industry or the wider rural community. Throughout the run-up to the general election, and ever since, the Government have trumpeted that they are fully supportive of, and wish to protect—in their words—“working people”. I ask the Minister: in their definition of “working people”, do they include tenant farmers and owner-occupier farmers, some of the hardest-working people in the land? If not, why not?

The Government should take a deep breath and rethink these Budget decisions. They have lost the trust of the rural community.