PLANS ANNOUNCED by the Labour government in this weeks’ Budget to cap Agricultural Property Relief risk the break-up of family farms here in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale and across the rest of the UK.
That’s the view of local MP David Mundell as rural bodies including the National Farmers Union and the Tenant Farmers’ Association warn that it has been “a been a disastrous budget for family farmers, and especially tenant farmers” and that the capping of relief is “a shameless breaking of clear promises on Agricultural Property Relief will snatch away the next generation’s ability to carry on producing British food, plan for the future and shepherd the environment.”
Agricultural Property Relief (APR) has been one of the most important means of allowing working farm businesses to be passed to the next generation of farmers.
Now a campaign has been launched to oppose the new cap on ARP and convince the Labour government to change course and drop what has been branded as the ‘Family Farm Tax.”
David Mundell MP said:
“This is a very heavy blow to the farming industry and risks undermining the tradition of family farms being passed on to the next generation, along with the lifetime of experience which has been built up.
“The Chancellor’s tax raid on farming will cause the break-up of family farms, undermine the UK’s ability to meet environmental commitments, and presents a direct challenge to the future of tenant farming where larger let estates may now have to consider disposals to remain within new property relief limits.
“It shows we now have a government which fundamentally doesn’t understand the realities of the rural economy here in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale and across the rest of the country, and apparently doesn’t have much respect for it either.
“I urge everyone who wants to protect our rural economy locally to sign the campaign petition at: https://www.stopthefarmtax.com and make sure the Government knows how much we value our farming industry.”
ENDS.
