Disappointment at budget outcome, but the fight goes on – UFU president
Ulster Farmers’ Union president William Irvine has said there is disappointment at the lack of movement on the inheritance tax changes in today’s budget, but the fight goes on to get an amendment to the Finance Bill.
Speaking from Whitehall at 5pm Mr Irvine said there were still tractors on the streets, after the protest earlier in the day. He said farmers in the capital were disappointed, rather than angry at the outcome of the budget.
"They are disappointment rather than angry, because I think the reality is none of us really expected a major change in the budget today. It was more about making the statement that we still have a lot of issues and we still feel it is a totally unfair tax, and we haven’t given up hope yet of getting some sort of a turnaround on it,” the UFU president said.
During the budget, the Chancellor announced a small change to the rules which will allow those farmers who are married, or have deceased spouses, to transfer their inheritance tax allowance to one another if one of them dies having not used their allowance.
Mr Irvine said that the slight change to the tax allowances will mean that in certain situations it will leave it slightly simpler for farm families from an adminstration point of view.
"I welcome it. There was widespread surprise after last year’s budget that it wasn’t part of what was announced, because all other reliefs like that are transferable between spouses. Today that has almost just been tidied up but, make no mistake about it, we are still looking at a lot of damage to Northern Ireland farms over the coming years as farms move down a generation.
“We and others have been putting quite a bit of time and effort among politicians over here in Westminster to get an amendment to the Finance Bill. The first draft of the Finance Bill will appear in possibly a fortnight and we will be working to see if we could get a sensible amendment there. It’s a big challenge with the Labour majority, but there is quite a bit of momentum for a cross party amendment to try and bring some commonsense to this situation.”
Mr Irvine was asked his opinion on suggestions that farmers should take a more radical approach to the campaign, with some suggesting that roads and ports should be blocked off.
He said: “I think by and large we still have a lot of public support, and I value that support and I think there is more to be gained by taking the political route as far as we can possibly go rather than more radical action.”