To support UK Farmers

[TheHateIsNotGood]

And due to KS's inability to face them in Wales today they are now thinking of going on strike. Because the govt are being too stubborn to reconsider how they apply IHT on working family farms. By all means close the loophole that allows the 'landed gentry' to take advantage of the agricultural exception but not with so blunt an instrument.

I was hoping to add a post to an existing thread but there isn't one despite it being headline news today.

'@ArabellaScott · Today 17:15
We don't grow fruit in the UK, but we do produce almost all grains and most vegetables.'

Of course we grow fruits in the UK.

I live in Kent and local farmers produce apples, strawberries, pears, cherries, plums....

We have several greengrocers in my small seaside town selling locally produced fruits and vegs.

So that means land has increased by £2200 an acre in two years. There is no way in the world this sort of increase is justifiable.

We don't grow fruit in the UK? Really?

Is your Username representative of your age?

I know talk about tanking your credibility. Arabella is close to the person who argued that Asda produces their food.

If you want to be pedantic, we grow small quantities of fruit. The vast majority of fruit eaten in the UK is imported.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/united-kingdom-food-security-report-2021/united-kingdom-food-security-report-2021-theme-2-uk-food-supply-sources

'The UK produces over 50% of vegetables consumed domestically, but only 16% of fruit. In 2020, 93% of domestic consumption of fresh vegetables was fulfilled by domestic and EU production, while fruit supply was more widely spread across the EU, Africa, the Americas, and the UK.'

Michael Gove approved a couple of traveller sites and an estate near me - if you had the money to take the application through all the appeals it usually got through,

Using that rationale all brexiteers should have their pockets emptied out.

I’m thinking it’s time to reduce livestock farming and increase those fruit and veg %s
Thanks for the attachment.

I certainly think we should look into more polytunnels, etc. But for the more rugged landscape of the UK the most efficient use of the land is sheep farming.

Because neither of those people have a vocation, nor provide the UK with vital commodities.

A roof over your head is not vital?

Reducing livestock farming reduces our export business. Or are you suggesting stopping exports?

Well indeed, but I doubt they'll answer. Truthfully anyway.

Well they did say it was a price worth paying. Currently costing £100bn a year.

What I find interesting is that Hopkins, Farage and Nick Griffin, the self styled ‘patriots’ don’t believe patriotism applies to millionaires paying the same tax as everyone else.

I wonder if they think their ordinary followers will be rioting and throwing petrol bombs at police in support of Clarkson and Dysons children inheriting millions in tax free land and property?

Well, I'm not sure it meets the threshold for pedantry, but, moving on.
You're absolutely correct that certain terrain in the UK isn't going to be suitable for arable farming.
Not sure if I can find it again, but BBC Verify had a chart for average profit margins across various farms. The absolute average being £45,800.00 p.a. Which I found shocking tbh. The lower end of the scale for types of arable being £17,500.00 p.a. - and that wouldn't even be the lowest as they didn't include very small, low profit farms. The uppermost however, pig farming, at an average of £150,000.00 ish p.a. Not sure that those farms would swap, even if they could.

The protection afforded against inheritance tax by the royal family is breathtaking. No-one has mooted "Off with their heads".

Clarkson, Dyson etc are small beer in the scheme of things.

FFS.
In the words of Jackson Lamb, it's like trying to explain Norway to a dog.

What do you all say to this?

Yes, exactly. That’s a 28% increase in two years.

If you assume that was approx 14% (compound) per year, and the same continues for the next two years until this law comes into effect in 2026, then a farm worth £1m today will be £1.29m and to be under the £1m threshold then it cannot be worth more than £770k now.

If the new law doesn’t lead to a massive devaluing of land, and that 14% rate stays the same, then in ten years a farm valued at £1m today will be worth £3.7m.

Or, to put it another way, for a farm to be worth £1m in 2034, it would have to be worth no more than £268,000 now.

The thresholds set by the budget don’t increase with inflation, that £1m remains in place until the government chooses to alter it. That’s why the farmers are so angry.

Or this.
How many farms will be affected by Budget tax rises? https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8rlk0d2vk2o

Its all crap. they are so far from reality its unreal.

The BBC got those figures from a Government paper that Defra published on 14.11.24, a fortnight after the budget.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/farm-business-income/farm-business-income-by-type-of-farm-in-england-202324?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR0QsZomCC-6HkML459CcrLIabIaIYwP6baLfZMMValKDrt1tP488xoNiL8_aem_DeSg8H56yK5RRTl6qI_cCA

But why the massive increase and what is being done to stop it? At the end of the day it is just a piece of land. It can just grow as many potatoes today as it did two years ago. Of course as the value of the land goes up, so does the cost of the produce to the consumer. It needs something to slow and stop the rise. This may be it, it may not. But one things for sure. It is not sustainable as the only winners currently are those buying agricultural land to resell at profit or use as tax breaks.