Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Daniel Zeichner and David Reed

Thursday 20th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[David Reed (Exmouth and Exeter East) (Con)]

3. What estimate he has made of the number of farmers affected by changes to agricultural and business property reliefs.

[The Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs (Daniel Zeichner)]

Around 500 claims each year will be impacted. Our reforms will mean that farmers will pay a reduced inheritance tax rate of 20%, rather than the standard 40%, and payments can be spread over 10 years interest free. Farm-owning couples can pass on up to £3 million without paying inheritance tax. In our view, this is a fair and balanced approach, and should be seen against the backdrop of the Government committing £5 billion for farming over two years—the largest budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history.

[David Reed]

I am starting to feel like DEFRA Ministers are purposefully ignoring me and Devon’s farming community. I have given the Secretary of State since early December to answer my letters and my invitations to meet with Devon’s farming community, in order to explain how changes to agricultural property relief and business property relief are going to affect them. At the last DEFRA questions, I called out the Secretary of State for not replying to any of my requests. The Minister for food, farming and fisheries replied from the Dispatch Box that

“I would love to meet farmers in Devon, so I am happy to add him to the list for my grand tour across the country to reassure people that there is a strong plan to ensure that farmers have a viable future”.—[Official Report, 6 February 2025; Vol. 761, c. 909.]

So far, those platitudes have gone unrealised. With less than a month until these changes take effect, Devon’s farmers are still in the dark about how the changes are going to affect them. If this is how Ministers treat fellow MPs, is it any wonder that farmers up and down the country feel completely abandoned by this Labour Government?

[Daniel Zeichner]

I hear the hon. Gentleman’s complaint, but I have been to Devon in my role before, and I will come to Devon again. I am always happy to meet farmers. I have spent quite a lot of time at this Dispatch Box answering questions from Conservative Members, so perhaps fewer questions will mean more time to go out and meet farmers.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Daniel Zeichner and David Reed

Thursday 6th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Daniel Zeichner]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important set of points about the biosecurity needed to protect our country. Over the past few weeks we have had a series of questions across the Dispatch Box about the foot and mouth outbreak in Germany and avian influenza. We have had this discussion about the investment in Weybridge, and I am delighted that this Government have brought forward a £280 million investment there. Of course, we need to do more in future, but what on earth were the previous Government doing over the past 14 years?

[David Reed (Exmouth and Exeter East) (Con)]

9. What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the autumn Budget 2024 on business confidence among farmers.

[The Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs (Daniel Zeichner)]

The truth is that confidence among farmers has been far too low for far too long. That is why this Government are setting out the sustainable long-term plan for farming. Again, I point people to the Secretary of State’s address at the Oxford farming conference. We will continue to progress our priorities over the coming weeks.

[David Reed]

Farmers across Devon are rightly concerned about Labour’s planned changes to agricultural property relief and business property relief, particularly the serious impact on family farms and on the sustainability of rural communities. In early December I wrote to the Secretary of State to invite him to meet Devon’s farming community, at an event to be organised in conjunction with the NFU in Devon, to provide clarity on the policies’ objectives and to address their concerns. I am yet to receive a response. I ask him directly now: will he come to Devon, meet local farmers, and explain how these policies will not undermine their livelihoods and the future of British farming?