James Cartlidge opinion: Taxes rises will hit farmers hardest

In my comment I stressed that this was about more than just pylons, rather, the question was more about Labour’s wider disinterest in rural affairs. I said: “The Government are approving solar farms without listening to any arguments about food security and they seem to take very little interest in farming or protecting the countryside, literally placing no weight on the rural impact of pylons whilst refusing to even consider evidence that shows other options could be cheaper - without permanent damage to the countryside”.

MP James Cartlidge is concerned about the rural impact of pylons (Image: Newsquest/citizenside.com) I didn’t know then that a month later the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, would unveil a budget containing the singularly most damaging fiscal proposal to confront farmers for decades – removal of full Business Relief and Agricultural Property Relief (APR), and the introduction of inheritance tax on farming assets. There’s a reason I didn’t think Labour would actually do this – they explicitly said they wouldn’t.

In December 2023, the Secretary of State for DEFRA, Steve Reed, told the NFU that the Opposition had no plans to change inheritance tax, including APR. That’s pretty explicit. But then again, Labour promised in the election not to raise taxes. £40bn plus of tax raises later and we will all be counting the cost – but the impact of these taxes will be felt most acutely by agriculture.

MP James Cartlidge says budget changes will 'suck the life out of British farming'. Do you agree? (Image: Wild Ken Hill)

I believe that this proposal will suck the life out of British farming. Small family farms are sustained from one generation to the next; they are not ‘just another job’. Farming is a calling; it’s hard work; it takes its toll on mental and physical health – but farmers have always been able to weather the slings and arrows that come with their profession, on the understanding that their input will pass through time to the next generation.

Read more: https: Shotley farming family distraught at Budget tax hit

It was a Frenchman called Jean-Baptiste Colbert who asserted one of the best principles of a good taxation system, in my view, stating that “the art of taxation is procuring feathers from a goose with the least amount of hissing”. None of us like taxes, but we know the Government needs revenue to pay for our Defence, NHS and much more besides. The best way to raise that revenue is with minimal direct impact, but by spreading the load widely, albeit with differential rates according to means.

Whereas, this imposition of inheritance tax on farmers goes totally against that principle. It is disproportionate, in posing so existential a threat to farm businesses, rather than simply adding incrementally (though there is much of that too, from higher employers’ NICs to a carbon tax on pesticides, which farmers will also feel the cost).

Frankly, there is only one comparable example of such a disproportionate tax that I can think of – and it’s from the same Government, confirmed in the same Budget: VAT on school fees. In both cases the impact threatens the careful plans of thousands of my constituents, and in both cases, I can say without exaggeration that they are deeply vindictive measures that betray a wider agenda that casts aside the concerns of the countryside.

But this is not just about those who live in rural areas. Our farmers are a national asset. They deliver the food we eat; they nurse the beautiful Suffolk landscape; they husband our livestock.

Of course, farmers can appear superficially ‘wealthy’. They have land. Self-evidently, they have assets – without them, they couldn’t farm and wouldn’t be farmers. But few have the kind of income sloshing around that a footballer can earn in a week.

So, what am I going to do about this new tax? First and foremost, I’ll be meeting as many local farmers as possible to hear how they think this will affect them. In an Urgent Question yesterday, Ministers implied that the NFU didn’t know what it was talking about in terms of the likely scale of the impact. I’ll be visiting the coalface to find the truth, and that starts on Friday on the Shotley Peninsula.

And I encourage everyone affected to make their voice heard. I understand there will also be a rally in London. Fantastic – let’s take the voice of the countryside to the capital. We will have one message for the Government: for the sake of our rural way of life, and those whom we rely on to feed our nation, think again. Our brilliant farmers deserve no less, and they have my total support.