Stonea farming leader urges government to support Cambridgeshire’s farmers and growers at the Budget

A Fenland farming leader is urging the government to renew its relationship with farmers and growers at the Budget next month by supporting investment and growth in the industry.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) says rock-bottom confidence levels among farmers leave investment as bone-dry as the fields this summer.

They say that confidence has been knocked most severely by the changes to inheritance tax, announced at last year’s Budget.

Farmers and growers say they have been making choices about where to cut investment on the farm to try to save capital to pay for possible tax liabilities that they had been promised this Labour government wouldn't introduce.

NFU Cambridgeshire chair Alison Morris, a fifth-generation arable farmer based in Sonea, said: “Farming is vital to Cambridgeshire. The county’s farmers play a big part in the huge contribution farming makes to the economy in East Anglia, valued at around £1.4billion. Food production plays a key role in supporting around 6,500 jobs in Cambridgeshire.

“We also support the environment and protect the countryside while feeding the nation with healthy, nutritious, affordable, traceable and ethically produced food.

“But we are all facing huge pressures, and farmer confidence is at an all-time low.

“The planned changes to inheritance tax have sent shockwaves throughout the industry.

“Independent experts continue to highlight how the government has seriously miscalculated the impact these changes will have, stifling investment and threatening the future of many small and medium-sized farms across the region, while seriously impacting our ability to deliver national food security.

“The current inheritance tax plans do little to tackle the issue of people just buying land to avoid tax and unfairly punish elderly farmers who will be left with no time to make changes to their businesses.

“It is not too late for the government to reverse this damaging and poorly thought-out policy and help giving farming, and our region, a positive future.”

Ahead of the Budget, on November 26, the NFU has written to the Chancellor asking for:

• A better targeted approach to inheritance tax reform

• An increase in the Annual Investment Allowance up to £5m and to extend it to include assets qualifying for structures and buildings allowance to support investments in efficiency and productivity improvements, including with regard to energy and water usage

• The introduction of enhanced capital allowances, for both incorporated and unincorporated businesses, to incentivise the investment required in a broad range of low-carbon capital investments

• Making Tax Digital to be workable for Britain’s farming industry

• The current reduced rates of fuel duty for red diesel to help alleviate energy and fuel costs for farm businesses to be maintained

• Continue to rule out any wealth taxes

• Rethinking the reclassification on Double Cab Pick-Up trucks from vans to cars.

NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: “Farmers and growers either choosing not to or being unable to invest in their businesses should worry us all.

“These are the businesses that produce the nation’s food, underpin the UK’s largest manufacturing sector – which is worth £153 billion to the economy and supports 4.2 million jobs – and manage and protect our iconic countryside.

“During the Labour Party conference, the Defra Secretary said she wanted to ‘make sure the government renews our relationship with the NFU and the farming community’.

“Even at this late stage, there is still time for the government to do that. That’s why ahead of the Budget, I have urged the Chancellor again to take the handbrake off of Britain’s farmers, look at the alternatives on offer to the family farm tax and work with us to unlock the investment British food production so desperately needs.”