Nicholas Field-Johnson, County councillor for Burford and Carterton North, writes as follows:
Farms are handed down generation to generation and are the life blood of our food chain and the rural way of life. Farming in West Oxfordshire is not only a vital part of our community but plays an important part in our rural economy.
British food and farming provide the raw ingredients for the UK’s largest manufacturing sector, Food and Drink, worth £148 billion to the UK economy, and jobs for more than four million people. This is 14% of the nation’s workforce.
British farmers produce affordable, quality food to world- leading animal welfare and environmental standards, all while protecting and enhancing our precious countryside.
British farming is also uniquely positioned to tackle climate change by capturing carbon in soils through planting crops, managing grassland and planting trees and hedges which is a vital part of maintaining our countryside.
Farming tends to be a family business and the PM, from an urban community such as Islington, doesn’t seem to understand this simple fact. The government clearly has no understanding of farming. Farming is not a commercial enterprise to be run remotely or by Private Equity or large corporations.
In my Division, there are a number of family farms: the Walker family own several farms in the Swinbrook and Asthall area. In my village, Richard Murray and his two sons run the local farm – these are integral family businesses.
Cotswold farms and the farmhouses are valued significantly over Labour’s £3m inheritance tax (IHT) threshold. Farms tend to be asset rich but cash poor. Many of these farmers are single or widowed and would not fall within the lower £1m threshold - giving them and their families an unfair tax burden.
The government’s proposed IHT increase would wipe out most of the farm’s annual income. It is both unfair and unjust and most importantly will destroy our valuable farming industry. Thousands of family-run farms will be affected and will be forced to sell their farms if they cannot afford to pay the IHT.
My father was a dairy farmer and I grew up within a farming environment. My father was up at 4am to gather the cows for milking – it was an arduous task. In the early 1960s, his herd was hit twice by foot and mouth which forces you to destroy your herd and start all over. Building a new herd takes time and on the second coming of the disease he decided to sell the farm. Farming is a hard-working choice.
Clearly those in the Labour party who have an urban background have little understanding of the commitment needed, but I ask you all to write to your MP and to urge the government to change direction on this policy as it will inflict severe damage on our farming industry which is so vital to our food chain and threatens our rural way of life.
OCC Cllr Nicholas Field-Johnson, Burford & Carterton North nick.fieldjohnson@oxfordshire.gov.uk and
This article will appear in the February edition of The Bridge - Editors
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