Jul 25, 2025 12:35 AM
(This post was last modified: Jul 25, 2025 12:40 AM by C C.)
The "we don't need no stinking food, livestock, and fish around here" agenda?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/reco...50484.html
EXCERPTS: A record number of farms were forced to close for good this year after Rachel Reeves’s tax raid made the future of thousands of rural businesses unviable. A total of 6,365 agriculture, forestry and fishing businesses have closed over the past year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the highest since quarterly data was first published in 2017.
The majority of these closures took place during the first six months of the year after Ms Reeves, the Chancellor, announced in October that she would cut the amount of inheritance tax relief available to family farms. Just 3,190 businesses in the sector have been set up over the same period. It leaves a net loss of 3,175, indicating the number of farms is shrinking at the fastest pace on record.
Victoria Atkins, the shadow environment secretary, said the farm closures were a result of “Labour’s disastrous tax policies”.
She added: “The crippling NICs [National Insurance contributions] increases, alongside the family farm and family firm taxes, are destroying generational businesses, creating job instability and even leading to devastating suicides. These statistics prove that Labour do not understand our rural communities and our rural communities cannot afford Labour.”
Lee Anderson, a Reform UK MP, said rising taxes and red tape were “pushing British farming to the brink. No government in modern history has done more damage to rural Britain than Labour is right now,” he said. “Farms are closing at twice the rate new ones are opening. This is completely unsustainable. Labour has betrayed the industry that helped build this country.”
Farmers are also grappling with the soaring cost of fertiliser and a poor harvest following the recent drought and floods last year. James Grindal, a 55-year-old third-generation farmer in South Leicestershire, said the poor weather and barrage of costs mean new farmers and entrepreneurs are reluctant to set up businesses in the industry.
He said: “Yields are quite a bit down this year, it has been so dry – we have not had decent rain for four or five months. People have been beaten from post to pillar. Whichever way you turn you seem unwanted. The Government is not over-supportive of us, with inheritance tax relief disappearing.”
[...] Victoria Vyvyan, president of the Country Land and Business Association, said taxes and red tape were undermining farmers’ efforts to make ends meet.
She said: “This report says what ministers won’t: rural businesses are being pushed to the edge. Farmers trying to modernise or diversify are blocked at every turn – by red tape, by National Insurance rises, by a government that talks growth while pulling out the foundations beneath it. Still, the countryside carries on. New businesses are opening. People are holding on. But grit isn’t a strategy. What’s needed now is simple: stability, clarity, and a government willing to listen – before more farms are lost and more families are forced out.”
[...] Ms Reeves’s tax change, which alongside a similar reduction in the relief for family businesses is set to raise up to £520m per year for the Exchequer, caused immediate political ructions with farmers driving tractors into central London to protest outside Parliament. MPs also heard emotional evidence from family farms about the dangers of the tax raid.
[...] Any hopes the plans might be softened were dashed with the publication of the Finance Bill this week which confirmed the changes will come into force next year... (MORE - missing details)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/reco...50484.html
EXCERPTS: A record number of farms were forced to close for good this year after Rachel Reeves’s tax raid made the future of thousands of rural businesses unviable. A total of 6,365 agriculture, forestry and fishing businesses have closed over the past year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the highest since quarterly data was first published in 2017.
The majority of these closures took place during the first six months of the year after Ms Reeves, the Chancellor, announced in October that she would cut the amount of inheritance tax relief available to family farms. Just 3,190 businesses in the sector have been set up over the same period. It leaves a net loss of 3,175, indicating the number of farms is shrinking at the fastest pace on record.
Victoria Atkins, the shadow environment secretary, said the farm closures were a result of “Labour’s disastrous tax policies”.
She added: “The crippling NICs [National Insurance contributions] increases, alongside the family farm and family firm taxes, are destroying generational businesses, creating job instability and even leading to devastating suicides. These statistics prove that Labour do not understand our rural communities and our rural communities cannot afford Labour.”
Lee Anderson, a Reform UK MP, said rising taxes and red tape were “pushing British farming to the brink. No government in modern history has done more damage to rural Britain than Labour is right now,” he said. “Farms are closing at twice the rate new ones are opening. This is completely unsustainable. Labour has betrayed the industry that helped build this country.”
Farmers are also grappling with the soaring cost of fertiliser and a poor harvest following the recent drought and floods last year. James Grindal, a 55-year-old third-generation farmer in South Leicestershire, said the poor weather and barrage of costs mean new farmers and entrepreneurs are reluctant to set up businesses in the industry.
He said: “Yields are quite a bit down this year, it has been so dry – we have not had decent rain for four or five months. People have been beaten from post to pillar. Whichever way you turn you seem unwanted. The Government is not over-supportive of us, with inheritance tax relief disappearing.”
[...] Victoria Vyvyan, president of the Country Land and Business Association, said taxes and red tape were undermining farmers’ efforts to make ends meet.
She said: “This report says what ministers won’t: rural businesses are being pushed to the edge. Farmers trying to modernise or diversify are blocked at every turn – by red tape, by National Insurance rises, by a government that talks growth while pulling out the foundations beneath it. Still, the countryside carries on. New businesses are opening. People are holding on. But grit isn’t a strategy. What’s needed now is simple: stability, clarity, and a government willing to listen – before more farms are lost and more families are forced out.”
[...] Ms Reeves’s tax change, which alongside a similar reduction in the relief for family businesses is set to raise up to £520m per year for the Exchequer, caused immediate political ructions with farmers driving tractors into central London to protest outside Parliament. MPs also heard emotional evidence from family farms about the dangers of the tax raid.
[...] Any hopes the plans might be softened were dashed with the publication of the Finance Bill this week which confirmed the changes will come into force next year... (MORE - missing details)