Jeremy Clarkson is damaging farmers

[Pippyls67]

He should butt out of the inheritance tax debacle. As Victoria Derbyshire reminded him during the London protests, he admitted in news print, when he bought his farm it was to dodge inheritance tax. Now he’s jumping in the back of farmers who probably won’t in actual fact pay very much ( smaller farms than his) for his own mercenary agenda. Farmers need to distance themselves from him and ban him from public events. He’s muddying their message and making them look bad by association. Ps I understand farmers need their farms intact to pass on but tbh we all need to pass on our wealth. I run a business and it’ll be screwed by inheritance tax to some extent. I don’t like it but you have to get on with it. That’s just the way of things isn’t it. Gotta pay for the NHS, schools and essential services from somewhere. Farms will need to sell assets I get it. Yes the largest farms will shrink in size but you just have to diversify to make up the difference if you want the same level of income. That’s what we do in business. Also it will make (potentially) land available for incomers to the industry. Lack of new blood and chances to enter farming have been an issue for many years. This is partly a consequence of even the largest farms being ‘handed down’ intact.

Mixed blessing, I think- he's a great spokesman and has done a huge amount to raise awareness of the difficulties farmers face. Yet he's also an illustration of why the IHT change was brought in.

As I understand it most (real) farmers would be happy with a change that catches people making a purely financial investment but not genuine family farms. One suggestion is that there should be no IHT on death but if the person who inherits the land then sells it within a specified period (10 years say), the tax would become payable- good explainer here https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/11/24/how-to-stop-iht-avoidance-but-protect-farmers/
If JC could get behind this as a workable compromise- protecting farmers but not tax avoiders- that would give it a better chance.

@MoreDangerousThanAWomanScorned isn’t business relief taxed at 20% above the exemption level

Of course I do think that sone of the inheritance raised should be specially targeted at the farming industry in general - so much is expected , many are living socially isolated lives with low incomes and expected to adapt to climate change and we need to improve uk food security

Perhaps the take form the ultra rich farms and give to the poor ones would be more acceptable message as well

The experiences at work of those who own the farm and those who carry out ‘jobs in agriculture’ isn’t quite the same is it? I’ve worked in agriculture and gotten the backbreaking shitty jobs more than the boss. Plus he had a hell of a lot better house than me and a hell of a lot nicer view. Oh and I’d get called out in the night to calve a cow from my own home. He was happily tucked up in Bedfordshire with a hot water bottle. I don’t blame him. Good luck to him. He’d say “I don’t keep dogs and bark myself”. I’d have been the same if I was him I don’t doubt. Mind you, you’d see some sights at night. Best was foxes who came into the shed to scoff the ‘cleansings’ (afterbirth) at the dead of night. Cheeky little buggers. Plus it’s like the the rest of the workd doesn’t exist at that time. Loved that sometimes when you’d go home to a house of rowdy kids and chaos.

Clarksons bleating is a spectacular own goal for farmers.

The whinging ‘poor me, nobody works as hard as meeeeee’ rhetoric is boring. My father is a farmer, both sets of grandparents were farmers and my golden balls brother and multiple other male cousins are now farmers. All with large farms on prime land.

Without exception, none of them have a mortgage and all live in expensively finished, new build houses. The kids have ponies and are all presented with new cars on their 17th birthdays. My niece’s prom dress cost £900…. ( she’s 15)

Brand new cars and jeeps every year. Farm labourers employed so they can have weekends and holidays off. My brother and his family are currently in Lapland, having had 2 weeks in the Med during the summer.

Farmers love to whinge-I’ve listened to it my whole life and I am currently loving winding my cousins up about about their tax bills 😁

derxa

Where do you get your information? Farmers are a hugely varied breed

From the Cornish farmers we know/have known. Two lots who had children in our daughter’s class at independent school (their 4 other children between them were also at independents). One farmed between Truro and Falmouth and the other a big dairy and beef farm on The Roseland with additional holiday let complex. Another with an organic beef business on the South Coast.

Didn't want for anything. I expect their on paper income was derisory (one in particular used to openly laugh about that).

Let's face it, it is Labour that is damaging farmers (and the private sector in general).

Farmers make their contribution by providing food for the country, most of the time for no profit. If they have to start selling land, it becomes unviable for growing crops/produce/keeping cattle on. And then they lose so much money they can't afford ot keep running it as a farm. It is a lot more complicated than just diversifying. And this isn't just a business. These farms have often been in the family for hundreds of years. The farmers have worked on them 24/7 all their lives. It isn't a job to them. It is their very way of life. A way of life that they are now at risk of losing.

Exactly. This is what people don't understand and why Clarkson has done such a good job for increasing public awareness of the problems faced by farmers. When the crop is ready for harvesting, it's ready - that day! You can't do it a week earlier or a week later. All the conditions have to be right, i.e. the crop itself, the weather, etc. You really can't wait for "Farmer Giles" over the other side of the valley to finish harvesting his fields (and his neighbours) before he comes over to do yours! Farmers WILL share equipment, there are also self employed combine owners/drivers who a farmer can hire in, so there is an element of sharing of equipment, but it's still highly limited (and more expensive to hire someone's equipment especially if you have to hire it every year for decades where it would end up costing far more than buying your own - as they can last decades!).

Yes, it looks crazy that there will be hundreds of combine harvesters sat idle in barns for several months of the year, but that's just the nature of it!

You could say the same of snowploughs parked up in airports, waiting for the two or three days per year when there's heavy snow. Or the snow ploughs in railway sidings for 11 months of the year.

Totally agree. He may be a total knob but I personally have learnt more about farming since his show started

Due to the politics of envy, rather than actually sensible well thought logical politics.

I don’t know anyone like that round here.

Lots of farmers with kids at private school in Suffolk as well as Cornwall

The ones who can't afford that are also highly unlikely to be affected by the inheritance tax

What of it? You know some wealthy farmers. Most are not.

It’s a cliche on here. The working class girl who now earns a ‘six figure salary’. Are you sniffy about her and her wealth.

Ive always found him fuuny.

As someone with no experience of farming and only a vague understanding of what a hard life it must be I found Clarksons farm really enlightening. He freely admits it's not hard for him cos he has other incomes (Amazon). He's really opened my eyes to farmers struggles.

I couldn't bear him before his farm show.. in this he came across as quite humble and keen to help other farmers, despite being a total buffoon at times.

I really can't see how he's done anything but help.

Farm related. Worked on farms for many many many years and tbh I’ll never afford to farm in my own right. Id give my right ovary to buy land off you if you’re a farmer. But its not affordable for new comers because land prices are controlled by too many larger farming concerns. Secretly - on here - as it’s anonymous, it galls the crap out of me to hear farmers sons moaning about life. I just think ‘move over then sunshine while I bite your bloody arm off’ 🤣. I’m no fool tho. We’ve got kids to feed - so I shut up smile sympathetically and save it for here.

As a farmer I’m not happy to have Clarkson as a self appointed spokesman. His program has done some good, but imo he needs to pipe down on this issue.

Please, please can we stop trotting out the idea that lower land prices will enable wannabe farmers to get a foothold. It simply won’t happen because of the huge capital investment required.

Farmers have, and will continue to diversify since time immemorial. The new APR ruling along with moves on business relief will cause succession planning headaches which we have to accept and work with.

Ironically the introduction of APR has brought in the likes of Clarkson and Dyson and is a contributing factor to rising land prices. Rollover I believe is a bigger trigger.

Rising land values do not benefit farmers until they wish to sell, and are set to become a liability on death.

Also, fed up of the advice to just hand it on. It’s not that simple. You can not benefit from assets you’ve handed on. There is no money for handers on to pay rent to the next generation. Not to mention the possibility of divorce, illness, falling out with next generation. Many farmers have a tale of how handing on early led to loss of land and hardship after a divorce int the next generation.

My belief is that farming has been going through extraordinary changes in the last few decades. This latest is part of a wider social and economic change.

Successive governments have failed to address this, disappointingly this government is following suit. Brexit has been catastrophic. And before you pile on, the widely accepted figure is that 53% of farmers who vote voted leave. Which means 47% did not, apparently 45% voted remain. Not so v different from 52/48.

It appears there is no coherence: do we want food security? Do we want to minimise food miles? Have nutritious food with known provenance? Do we wish to move away from mono cropping? Towards a more sustainable way of farming? How do we want our countryside to look? What is it for?

The polarisation of rural and urban, rich bastard farmers can pay serves no one. I think it’s unarguable that those of have bought land as a tax advantageous investment should be targeted. Current proposals are going to have a disproportionate effect on those who
can least afford it.

Why didn’t you say all that in the first place instead of blethering about Jeremy.

Clarkson and Dyson are in it because they bought into farmland as a IHT dodge, Clarkson has raised the profile but not in a positive way.

Farage has jumped on the bandwagon because it's cheap points scoring, he shafted the fishing industry with feigned interest and now wants to screw over farming for some more cheap points. At least the farmers had the good sense to exclude him from the platform, I hope they'll maintain the good sense to marginalise his attempts to get involved.

There's been interesting discussions amongst the tax experts since the budget on IHT and farming - who were mostly positive based just on numbers and raw data, but have now had feedback and thought some more. Some initial positions being adjusted (from "it's a good thing" to "it could be a better thing if..") and more in depth analysis of the data being done. The number of farms predicted to be affected remains about the same, but the number of those that are genuine farms is dropping as better analysis identifies the most likely IHT dodges (one marker being claiming both agricultural relief and AIM relief). Some really interesting ideas coming out for fixes that could be made to target those who buy land principally to avoid IHT and remove almost all genuine small farms that could be made without being seen as a U-turn on the original announcement.

You wouldn’t be saying that if he wasn’t an old middle aged white man though. Would you?

Superb post. You clearly know what you are talking about. I don’t understand the very last point though about it disproportionately affecting those who can least afford it. Would you mind expanding on this please?

Making business pay VAT so as to better fund state education is just closing a loophole. It’s regrettable that most schools seem to be passing on the full costs to their customers rather than tightening their belts a bit, but that’s on them.

Explain in detail please?

Whole farms would not be sold though, right? Just parcels of land? What happens to this land?!

I can tell you what happens to parcels of agricultural land. They are either bought by developers and land banked. Left for years, not used. Or, they are then broken up further, sold in lots, and left as above until planning permission can be obtained, or gradually over time, occupied, fenced, filled with crap, and ruined forever.

We have two such areas local to me. Agricultural land on Green Belt adjacent to AONB. People being bussed in and sold on the promise of planning approval. Another site has gradually been developed over 10 years. Every single application and appeal denied, literally hundreds of enforcement notices, and yet the development continues. Councils are completely powerless.

Yet another parcel is to be covered in solar panels.

All these acres of previously productive land lost.