Farming under threat

Britain’s farmers’ campaign against changes in inheritance tax on farms continues to focus attention on food production and the condition of our countryside.

Demonstrations in London and other cities on 19 November and 11 December, and continuing local actions across England, Wales and Scotland, have won considerable public support.

Food security

As well as opposing the budget’s tax changes, farmers also call for a ban on sub-standard food imports, a ban on dishonest labelling, and measures to increase British food security.

Ministers tried to maintain the line that the inheritance tax change was about removing an undeserved tax relief from the very rich. Farmers and many others in Britain are not buying that.

No action

Neither this government nor any of its predecessors has taken action to stop the acquisition of productive land by hobby farmers and capitalists. This is done to widen the spread of risk on investment portfolios, to avoid capital gains tax, or to cash in on carbon offset and biodiversity incentives.

Able to afford expensive lawyers and accountants, such people are far more likely than working farmers to be able get round the tax – and will find another tax shelter if they can’t.

Big deal

In March 2024, in what was called one of the largest British land deals ever, Royal London Asset Management boasted that it had acquired a huge package of prime farmland from South Yorkshire Pension Authority. It paid over £12,000 an acre – and other deals last year were at an even greater price.

This deal enabled the pension fund to reduce its agricultural investments while maintaining a stake in RL Natural Capital Fund, as the joint venture with Royal London is called. But behind all the talk of sustainability and food production this is a piece of financial engineering, hoping to attract other investors. Food production will come after profit.

‘Productive agricultural land is lost to solar farms and “rewilding”, paid for by taxpayers.’

Some of the most productive agricultural land is being lost to solar farms and “rewilding” projects, paid for by taxpayers. Within days of the election the government approved three new solar farms, including Mallard Pass on the Rutland-Lincolnshire border, over four miles from end to end of prime agricultural land in one of Britain’s most productive farming areas.

At the same time as investors, many foreign, pile in to buying up the British countryside, farm incomes are falling for those who depend on the land for a living.

Costs

Farmers face a rise of over 30 per cent in the costs of feed, animal medicines, fuel, power and fertilisers and the new government is as inept as the last in sorting out farming grants post-Brexit. This is what’s driving the protests, as Minette Batters, former NFU president, explained recently in an interview with Country Life.

Fostering division

It is in the government’s interest to try to foster division and misunderstanding between town and country. A former advisor to the Blair government let the cat out of the bag when he claimed that farming is “an industry we can do without” and that the government “could do to them what Margaret Thatcher did to the miners.”

Farmers may be leading the way but it is time for us all to act to secure the future of our food supply and our countryside.