Carmichael voices farming concerns over possible inheritance tax changes

Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, has spoken in Parliament on concerns amongst farmers and crofters about the potential impact of changes to Business Property Relief and Agricultural Property Relief on inheritance tax, reported to be under consideration in the upcoming Budget. Speaking in a debate led by Harriet Cross, MP for Gordon and Buchan, Mr Carmichael noted issues raised by the Tenant Farmers Association, and said that while there “might be a case for reform”, any changes in relation to farming risked wider consequences across rural communities.

Speaking in the debate, Mr Carmichael said:

“We have had a lot of speculation in the media in recent weeks about the possibility of changes coming in the Budget very soon. Without the ability to have a proper debate involving the Treasury, change will inevitably come in a haphazard and chaotic way, and it will bring with it many unintended consequences that will have an effect on not just farmers but the wider rural community. 

“There may be a case for reform, but this really is not the way to go about it. Farming is a capital-rich and revenue-poor industry. What affects farmers will affect vets, agricultural merchants, local shops and post offices in some of the most economically fragile communities to be found anywhere in the country. It is a cliché, but true, to say that farming underpins just about everything in rural communities and the rural economy, whether environmentally—through the way in which land is managed, which has consequences for nature—or financially.

“The Tenant Farmers Association provided a briefing for this debate, which said that it is already seeing consequences among its members:

“We are already seeing, first hand, concerns about how Inheritance Tax charges change the way that traditional estates have thought about the management of their agricultural land, and that is before there is any change to the Inheritance Tax regime. Rural estates with significant residential and mineral interests will want to ensure that they have sufficient business activity elsewhere on their estates to be able to qualify for BPR from Inheritance Tax across the whole of their estates. If APR was abolished this will make things hugely much more difficult for farm tenants.”

“North of the border, for the last few years we have had an active and often welcome debate about land reform, but one of the consequences of that debate is that many agricultural land owners, instead of moving out and putting in tenants, have moved into grass lets. A lot of the larger landowners’ estates, in particular, have replaced the secure agricultural tenancies for which they had been known for generations with a much less secure system of tenure.

“As the TFA says, there might be a case for reform. It suggests ways to reward longer tenancies of 10-plus years and more secure tenancies. We have to have that debate, but we cannot effect that in a meaningful way that looks at agricultural spending in the round once the decision has been announced in a Budget.

“I hope that when the Chancellor delivers the Budget next week, if this issue is under the Treasury’s active consideration, we will see the Government’s direction of travel and the overall picture that they want to achieve, rather than just one quick hit, because that could have serious consequences for family farms and rural communities across the country.”