Lockhart slams Budget as missed opportunity to scrap family farm tax
Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart has described the autumn Budget as a missed opportunity for the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to rectify the wrongs of their predecessors, warning that farming families have once again been let down by the Labour Government.
The DUP Agriculture spokesperson said farmers and industry leaders across the UK had been counting on Andy Burnham to honour previous indications that he was prepared to reconsider the controversial inheritance tax changes.
Ms Lockhart said: “This Budget was an opportunity for the Labour Party to reverse the damage caused by former Chancellor Rachel Reeves, and give farming families some much-needed certainty about their future.
“John Healey said his first Budget was for the “working people of Britain, for British businesses big and small”. He has failed to listen and grasp the true strength of feeling within the farming community – the people who contribute significantly to our economy and the people who feed the nation. Farmers are hard working people!
“Prior to becoming Prime Minister, Andy Burnham publicly acknowledged that the controversial inheritance tax changes place an unfair burden on generational family farms. Farmers were entitled to expect those words to translate into action.
“Instead, the Government remains tone deaf to industry pleas, leaving farming families facing continued uncertainty and anxiety about the future of their businesses."
On the eve of the autumn Budget, Carla Lockhart MP led an eleventh-hour Westminster Hall debate on UK domestic farming and food supply, during which she urged the Government to scrap the family farm tax, strengthen support for British food production and remove the trade barriers facing Northern Ireland’s farmers.
The MP highlighted UFU research which revealed that 84 per cent of respondents had reduced, postponed or cancelled investment, or proceeded on a smaller scale, in at least one area of their business. Almost nine in ten people reported increased family stress or worry.
Ms Lockhart said: “These figures should have been a wake-up call, but instead the Government has chosen to ignore the mounting evidence of the damage this policy is doing.
“The combined Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief allowance to £2.5 million per person doesn’t go far enough.
“Farm land, buildings and machinery are working assets, not cash sitting in a bank account to pay an unfair tax bill. Farmers will be forced to sell productive assets, undermine the viability of their businesses and jeopardise the future of the next generation.”
She added: “These are families who have borrowed, worked long hours and reinvested their earnings over decades to build businesses to pass on to the next generation. They should not be penalised for wanting to pass that legacy on.”
Carla Lockhart also warned that the inheritance tax issue could not be viewed in isolation from the wider pressures facing domestic food production, including rising input costs, planning difficulties, disease threats, unfair competition from imports and additional regulatory barriers affecting Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework.
She said: “Farmers put food on our tables, sustain rural communities and support thousands of jobs across the wider agri-food sector.
“Northern Ireland produces more than 10 per cent of the UK’s food output by value despite having less than 3 per cent of its population. That is a significant contribution to our national food supply and food security, and it must not be taken for granted.
“Farmers are already being asked to contend with rising costs and increasing uncertainty. The Government should be backing British food production, not introducing policies that discourage investment and threaten the future of family farms.
“Ministers may deal with these pressures separately, but farmers have to deal with them all at once. They need more than warm words. They need practical support, fair competition and policies that recognise the realities of running a farm.”
Concluding, Carla Lockhart MP said: “Once a family farm is broken up, it is not easily put back together. Once a young person walks away from farming, we may never get them back.
“Food production is fundamental to our national resilience and security. The Government must stop taking our farmers for granted, start listening and delivering the support they need.
“No farmers, no food, no future.”