NFU president Tom Bradshaw will call on the government to reset its relationship with farmers, as the fallout from its ‘disastrous’ inheritance tax (IHT) reforms looks certain to dominate today’s NFU conference.
In his opening address at the NFU’s annual conference, at Westminster, Mr Bradshaw will highlight how the cashflow crisis, botched agricultural transition and rock bottom business confidence, compounded by the ‘hammer’ blow of the unexpected family farm tax, are preventing investment and growth – a key mission for this government.
However, he will emphasise that the NFU remains focused on providing solutions, as demonstrated last week when, along with others, it presented the Treasury with the ‘Clawback’ solution to the IHT policy. The NFU will highlight these solutions in its newly launched Blueprints for Growth2.
Speaking to more than 700 members, politicians, and stakeholders at the conference, as well as hundreds more online, NFU President Tom Bradshaw will say: “There were only 87 words in Labour’s manifesto about farming, but some of those words gave us hope for the future; policies on imports, binding targets for British food for the public sector, a recognition that food security is national security.
“We recognise these are still early days for a new government, but new ministers had hardly found their way to their offices when they broke their first promise. And it’s one which overshadows all else, wiping out our ability to plan, to invest and, often, to hope. It hangs over our farms, our families, our futures: the family farm tax.
“This policy is morally wrong. I have received hundreds of desperate messages, taken hundreds of panicked calls.
“I worry about the tenant farmer whose home and livelihood may be taken away, because a landlord is often better off taking their land back in hand. I worry about former tenants too. People who have scraped everything together, risked it all to finally buy their farm and are now facing an unpayable bill.
“I worry about the next generation, whose entire future in the industry is now in question.
“Most of all I fear for elderly farmers. This isn’t just money, this is blood, sweat and tears. The farm was their life’s work, but as they have grown older, the farm has also become their pension – because that’s what they were told to do. That all changed without warning.
“The family farm tax is also economically wrong. The claim made by Treasury that 73% of farmers will be unaffected by this tax has long been debunked.”
He highlighted how, beyond the NFU, opposition parties, agricultural valuers, the CBI, Labour’s own tax advisers and all the UK’s major supermarkets have all called for the government to pause and consult.
“We commend the principled Labour MPs who have had the decency to speak out. What the Chancellor has said, is that nobody has offered alternative solutions. So, last week, all the UK farming unions and several other organisations took a solution into Treasury. And what happened? They simply sent us away, with the sound of a slamming door ringing in our ears.2
“And we will not go away, we will not stop, we will not give in. We will fight the family farm tax until ministers do the right thing.
Reset
““This government needs a reset with farmers, where they face up to the reality of how much the industry is struggling. Bad policy, geopolitics, unprecedented weather have left some sectors of UK farming in the worst cashflow crisis for generations. Many farmers are genuinely worried about how they’ll make it to the end of 2025.”
He said the government’s new ELMs system isn’t working and called for an uplift in Higher Level Stewardship payments, and urged the government to prioritise food security, as it promised to do before the election.
“If ministers work in partnership with us to deliver these blueprints, and finally do the right thing on the family farm tax, then the foundations of the future will look a lot brighter.”