Why are a tiny number of rich farmers dominating the news cycle?

[InvisibleRadiator]

I've been reading around this inheritance tax issue, and the more I read the more I agree with government policy!

For starters the government thinks this will only affect the 500 richest farms and some think this could be as low as 100 farms!
x.com/DanNeidle/status/1852064433738256394

How on earth have such a rich elite managed to whip everyone up into such a frenzy, making it sound like poor old farmer Giles's kids are going to have to sell the family farm when he dies.
The following article explains how when taking into account the IHT property exemption, a married farming couple would not pay IHT unless their assets exceeded £3 million!
www.independent.co.uk/news/business/inheritance-tax-farmers-protest-maths-b2649181.html

And there are so many concessions such as having 10 years to pay, and being half the rate most others pay! And there are many ways to legally reduce the impact of the tax.

It's clear that wealthy investors have been pushing up land prices, and apparently farmers are involved in less than half the land sales now, when compared to 15 years ago.

And now this tiny band of super rich are trying to plead poverty? I don't believe a word of it.

This final article puts it far more eloquently than I ever could.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/17/farmers-have-hoarded-land-for-too-long-inheritance-tax-will-bring-new-life-to-rural-britain

Good on Labour for standing up for the average person and trying to claw back a tiny portion of generations of inherited wealth for our public services!

@Abra1t conduct the interview in a cowshed with your old trousers on of course! When the tax man came knocking Father would hide the Bentley in a barn, make sure he was in his old work clothes covered in cow manure and usher him into his office through the side entrance where all the work boots etc were kept - then plead poverty!

My life isn't tough. The life of people I volunteer with is.

And I am not at all convinced by this doom mongering and I say that as someone who works in a related sector. And someone whose own family own land and most certainly don't farm it themselves. So many people just buy agricultural land as an investment..

Because we all secretly know that all farmers everywhere drive Bentleys and Rolls and dine on oysters and champers do bugger all work and get millions in subsidies a year.

Has anyone actually looked up what £3 million buys you in terms of farming? About 300 acres, farmhouse, barns, which is enough to sustain about 300 dairy cattle. Feel free to google.

I know a lot of farmers - friends and family with this setup. They take home less than minimum wage. They drive battered 20 year old range rovers, and usually manage a weeks holiday once a year somewhere in the U.K. but yes the houses they live in are gorgeously huge, but generally very in need of a hell of a lot of work.

That is not my idea of rich landowners.

If they sell up then the land will turn to yet more housing estates, and we will all be stuffed for food.

One of them recently rebuilt the milking parlour and barns. It cost £2million.

@MarkingBad 😂 Don’t get me started on the oysters and champagne!

And when they need to rebuild barns that cost £2million where do you think they get the money? Or one tractor that costs £150,000?

A lot of farms have massive loans or mortgages.

Likewise how on earth do you think any normal farmer buys a farm? They don’t have £2m million say in a bank account when they’ve been a tenancy farmer for decades.

A simple question but one I cannot answer.
Why do some farmers work long hours, every day of the week, all year for less than the minimum wage?
If it that bad why not stack shelves in Tesco.

The chapest around here I could find that was similar was 4m

https://www.uklandandfarms.co.uk/rural-property-for-sale/south-east/hampshire/48626_wnr240020/

This smallholding of around 16 acres is 1.4m

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/154101263#/?channel=COM_BUY

Bloody disheartening.

Quite. Land is very expensive. Especially if it could be good to build on.

Because they love the land and have a child who wants to go onto the land in their turn.

And plenty of small farmers have, over the past 20/30/40 years thrown in the towel. They have leased their land to other farmers, or sold up completely.

Some do both. Its not uncommon for farmers to work long hours and have a second job or their partner to have a full time job or seperate business (or both) so the farm can carry on going.

I could work 130 hours/week in peak season but as a worker I was paid, I say that, I was sometimes paid and sometimes I had to go doorstepping and have rows over not being paid.

However you farm whether you own, rent or just work it is a vocation, you do it because you are. It is rarely a job you choose to do, you just do it.

First boss took one look at me and said you are either born into this or you are fucking mad ... so which one are you.

EdithStourton
Because they love the land and have a child who wants to go onto the land in their turn.

So the uk population has to accept the argument that because the farmers work hard and love their job and their offspring want to do the same, they should be exempt from the normal taxations that everyone else has to pay

Oh stop saying it will be built on. That can be controlled through the planning system

Do the 'royal' family pay Iht? Do Amazon and other billion dollar profit organisations pay income tax in the uk? Why is he targeting the farmers? Seems like an odd cause to pin your colours to. Unless there is a reason behind it he isn't talking about.

Because you can't be the one to drop the torch. You can't be the generation who fails and loses the farm.
There is a huge pressure on family farmers inwardly from family history. Your family has owned and worked hard on something for generations for you. And your job is continuing on working hard to pass it for the next generation and then to the next.
You don't own a farm you are a custodian of it in order to pass it on to the next generation. It's both a blessing and curse.

That’s my worry.

There’s a very good reason why farmers don’t vote Labour, because Labour does not value the people who grow/produce our food at all. They constantly prove that it’s a race to the bottom.

Whatever the outcome of the protest it’s fairly safe to say that Labour’s decisions will push us back to the right.

Nope.

It was to keep farmers farming and producing food rather than selling up for housing, equestrianism and golf courses etc. Because agriculture isn't the same a dog food bowl manufacturing, it is essential for food security, the health of our nation including our natural need for green spaces and for our ecosystem.

Our governments in recent years have been incredibly keen on NetZero and one way to achive that is to shove all manufacturing onto other countries in other continents. Because no one wants to ask the populace to change their lifestyle, they want us to be fooled into thinking it would be better and fairer to load manufacturing and producing pollution onto somewhere else and import. This way they don't have to tackle the tech and fin requirements of making it less polluting here. Then they can show off how eco friendly they are to all the other countries considering doing the same thing.

The selling off of the land will also help with the house building targets and the new towns they hope to build.

So end all UK food security and get less regulated and lower welfare standard countries to do the icky bits and we can look shiny and clean and well housed, just fed with potentially crap food from thousands of miles away.

I'd rather the government targetted the private non-farming investors and allow food production in the UK to increase rather than allow any of that to happen.

There is a war in Europe, there are wars in Middle East for decades, it could easily come here. We are an island, we are easily starved out so this is absolutely no time to be messing with those who farm, food production needs increasing not decreasing.

Who exactly do you think will buy these farms? It’s not going to be aspirational farmers In thier 20’s. It will be house builders or the mega rich who want to play at farming.

Which the government also are shaking up.

As if the government can’t be bought anyway.

Because it’s a vocation. Like being a doctor or a nurse. Being a farmer is intertwined with the community. The children start farming when toddlers. They learn on the job. Some choose to leave but many want to stay. Honestly I spent a good hour chatting to some the other day on the way back from the protests and you could see the passion they had for it. It is their lives. They wouldn’t have any idea how to do anything else. You can’t just become a farmer- it’s in your blood. They don’t do it for the money.

How much do farmers earn per hour then?

You know London was once pretty much all farms? Chip away at a field here and a field there and eventually it’s gone.