Later during PMQs, Tory Sir Edward Leigh, the longest-serving MP in the Commons, urged Sir Keir, “as a good lawyer”, to “listen to the evidence” if it showed smaller family farms of around 250 acres were going to be severely hit by the tax.
“In a spirit of compromise, will he listen to the evidence, keep an open mind and perhaps be prepared to raise the thresholds to preserve our family farms?” Sir Edward asked.
The prime minister replied that the government was listening to farmers, with ministers meeting the NFU on Monday, and was taking a “fair and balanced approach”.
The “vast majority” of farms would not be affected, he repeated.
Pointing to the extra spending set out in the Budget, he added that he had grown up in a rural community, and knew that people in rural areas also needed “an NHS that is back on its feet… schools that their children can go to and homes that their families can afford to live in”.
Since it was introduced in 1984, agricultural property relief (APR), external has allowed small family farms – including land used for crops or rearing animals, as well as farm buildings, cottages and houses – to be exempt from inheritance tax.
Since the Budget, farmers have warned that getting rid of this IHT exemption will force many family farms out of business and decimate the countryside.
The government has said it remains committed to supporting farmers and “the vital role they play to feed our nation”.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said in some cases, the APR threshold could in practice be about £3m, where other IHT allowances also apply.
Paul Johnson, director of independent think tank The Institute for Fiscal Studies, has said, external the changes “will affect a remarkably small number of some of the most valuable farms”.
“[Farms are] still more generously treated, actually, than farms used to be in decades past.”
The Treasury estimates that 500 estates per year, external including agricultural land will be affected by the APR changes.
About 50 farmers protested against the measures on Wednesday, outside the Northern Farming Conference in Hexham, Northumberland, which was addressed by rural affairs minister Daniel Zeichner.
Source:
www.bbc.com
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