Farming and Rural Communities

Lord Bishop of Hereford Excerpts

Thursday 3rd April 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Hereford]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Roborough, for introducing this important debate. I speak as the Bishop of the most rural diocese in the Church of England.

Agriculture provides significant employment and is extremely diverse, from substantial agribusinesses to small family farms, and from large arable enterprises to small livestock hill farms. Prior to ordination, I worked as an agronomist, advising farmers on all aspects of crop production, translating scientific research into the practical solutions commended by the noble Lord, Lord Carrington. I have the privilege this year of being president of the Three Counties Show at Malvern, an event I warmly commend to noble Lords as a splendid day out.

However, over 40 years of involvement in the sector, I can honestly say that I have never seen morale so low nor such disillusionment with the Government’s capacity to understand and respond to the needs of the agricultural industry. A thriving agri-farming industry is essential to the wider health of the rural economy. Family farms are at the heart of this ecology. The inevitable consolidation of units that will ensue from proposed changes in APR and BPR will have huge knock-on effects on support industries, lead to rural depopulation and undermine the viability of many local services and businesses.

The Government have already rejected very reasonable alternative proposals from the NFU for a clawback mechanism, which I need not rehearse here. There are injustices in the existing application of APR and BPR which need to be addressed, as the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Brixton, has already mentioned in this debate.

The NFU proposals, which mirror similar practices in the rest of Europe, would go a significant way to addressing these without collateral damage to small family farms. A conservative modelling shows that such a clawback scheme would still raise an extra £554 million for the Treasury—some 7% more than the return from current proposals. I hope the conversation about agricultural policy can move beyond an arid discussion of numbers and economic modelling. This speaks to questions of honesty and good governance.

This Government campaigned on a manifesto pledge to support farmers and stimulate rural economic growth. I attended an event in this House shortly after the election, at which I am sure I remember the Minister assuring us that no changes to APR and BPR were planned—and yet within weeks, those assurances had been set aside.

Members of the Government in the other place have distanced themselves from government policy on inheritance tax, recognising the serious effects it will have on their farming constituents. Given that the proposed changes to inheritance tax seem to have been driven by the Treasury without consultation with Defra, there would be no shame in thinking again as the implications of this policy for small family farms become evident.

Foremost in my mind are the men and women who provide the food we eat and who work in an industry that is extraordinarily demanding. In all weathers, with a woeful return on capital and working hours that would be unacceptable in almost any other walk of life, they produce the most basic staples of life. Theirs is the mental health and well-being undermined by the proposed taxation policy. They feel ignored, misunderstood and marginalised. I urge the Government to ensure that this community’s voice is heard and responded to.