Small Farms and Family Businesses

Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard Excerpts

Thursday 12th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (UUP)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a small landowner and farmer in Northern Ireland. I thank the noble Earl, Lord Leicester, for bringing this important debate forward. I know a number of noble Lords have tried to bring forward similar debates, and I welcome this opportunity. I am interested in the contribution and assessment of the noble Lord who spoke previously. The noble Earl who brought forward the debate went into some detail, and I welcome the assessment and analysis that he carried out in relation to inheritance tax and the APR.

I have to ask the question: what do this Government want from agriculture and farming? Do they want farmers who have the countryside at heart, who want to do the best for the environment, and who want to produce food of good quality and with good environmental standards? Or do they want those smallholdings to be bought up by big institutions and large landowners, with no interest in farming and agriculture, buying produce from countries that do not have the same standards as we do in the United Kingdom? I ask that simply because that is what this is going to be about. If the Government’s intention is to bring about the better movement of farms and land, which other people will have the opportunity to purchase, they are doing exactly the opposite. Instead, they are going to force small family farms, or parts of them, to be sold and bought up by big institutions or people who have no interest in agriculture or producing food for the nation of the United Kingdom.

I heard it mentioned earlier that Northern Ireland punches above its weight. With a small nation, we feed 10 million people. I think it was the noble Baroness, Lady Foster, who indicated that. That is true, and a large number of those people are within Great Britain.

We need to wake up; if we bring about and follow through on this policy, we are going to decimate small, family farms. I am old enough to remember pre-1984, when there was inheritance tax on farms. I saw how that decimated small rural farms in Northern Ireland. Things have changed greatly since then. The value of farms and livestock has increased, and the amount of machinery needed has increased, along with its value. Many more farms will fall into the category that is now required to pay inheritance tax. Is that what we want? Do we want to stop those individuals and farming families who have worked hard?

I remind your Lordships’ House that many farmers go out and tend to their livestock every morning, making sure that they have feed and water, before going back home to for their own food and water. That is the dedication these farmers have. Some of them are up in the middle of the night tending to their animals, and are still up to milk their cows or tend to their livestock in the morning. That is the dedication of this community. It is not just a job or an individual business that has been there for a small number of years; it is a way of life, which contributes significantly to this economy and this community. Let it go at your peril.

I challenge the Government once again: what type of farming community, and what type of produce, food and agriculture, do they want for our society? If they want proper food, produced to good environmental and animal welfare standards, they should not go through with this taxation.