Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief
Debate between Joe Morris and Dan Tomlinson(2 days, 22 hours ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Dan Tomlinson
The Government want to support growth and investment in rural communities. That is why we are putting in £11.8 billion of support over the course of this Parliament and ensuring that we improve our economy and our economic fortunes across the board as a country after the chaos of the last 14 years. We have had six interest rate cuts in a row, borrowing costs are coming down, and inflation is falling faster than people forecast—it is now forecast to continue to fall. All those long-term changes to improve our economic outlook will support businesses in rural communities and communities across the country.
Joe Morris (Hexham) (Lab)
May I put on record my thanks to farmers such as Nick, Matt, Debbie, James and Graham in the Northumberland branch of the NFU in my constituency? I was in contact with them regularly, and they welcomed the Minister to my constituency to hear at first hand about the potential impact of the policy had it not been changed. I urge him to impress on colleagues the importance of buying British wherever possible. The best way to improve farming profitability is to ensure that much of the public sector food procurement is done with British farms and to ensure that farmland is not lost. To replace potential food-producing land, more food-producing land does not need to be cut out of forests elsewhere in the world.
Dan Tomlinson
I thank my hon. Friend for inviting me to his constituency last year; I believe it was shortly after I was made a Minister on 1 September. It was a very productive and useful visit, and I thank the farmers and members of the community I met when I went to a lovely café and had some lovely tea and cake with my hon. Friend and those farmers. It was a really helpful conversation for me, and I am thankful to him for his representations on behalf of his constituents over many months. I want to work with him on procurement and ensuring that we can continue to support farmers and farming communities; I know that Ministers across Government, particularly in DEFRA, will continue to do that in the months and years ahead so that we can turn the page on the chaos we had under the previous Government.