Peer calls for Government farming tax U-turn

Speaking in the House of Lords earlier today, Lord Rogan said: “Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom which is particularly reliant on farming. Agriculture provides £6 billion to the local economy.

“Given the well-documented problems in relation to the Irish Sea border which the Windsor Framework has created – an agreement negotiated by the previous Government, but fully supported by the new crop of Ministers – local farming produce is arguably more important to the people of Northern Ireland now than ever before.

“In light of these plain facts, the Goverment’s ill-advised and – it would appear – ill-informed Budget measure has the potential to decimate the Province’s agri-sector.”

Lord Rogan told the House that, earlier this week, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs had published the results of its own analysis which found that around half of the 26,000 farms in Northern Ireland could be impacted by the inheritance tax changes.

He said: “To put that into perspective, this would account for 80% of farmed land across the Province and include 40-45% of cattle and sheep farms, and 87% of dairy farms.”

Damage

And he asked: “Based on these figures – official figures from a Northern Ireland Executive department - how much damage is this Government prepared to inflict on Northern Ireland farmers before it accepts that it has got this wrong?”

The Ulster Unionist peer said he was fully aware that the Labour Government was still in its early months in office “and mistakes were possibly inevitable whilst it gets to grips with the realities of power.”

But he added: “Sadly, the farming tax is one of its biggest mistakes. The correct approach should be to acknowledge the error, scrap the tax and move on.

“They will get credit for doing so, not least from the beleaguered agricultural community in Northern Ireland.”