Robin Swann MP
Robin Swann MP has called on the UK Government to fully grasp the devastating and disproportionate impact the Family Farm Tax will have on Northern Ireland farms and has called on the Chancellor to meet with the farming unions from across the UK.
Speaking in a Westminster debate which called for the Tax to be scrapped, the South Antrim MP said:
“The Government have said they are listening. I also hope they hear the tractors and farmers from across this country outside this building today. They are showing their disgust at this proposal."
Highlighting the particular harms the introduction of this inheritance tax will have on Northern Ireland’s family farms, Mr Swann added:
“Some 150,000 petitioners signed the petition. I had the pleasure of presenting a similar petition, on behalf of the Ulster Farmers’ Union, signed by 15,000 people from Northern Ireland who oppose the Government’s proposal, which will decimate the Northern Ireland family farm and family farming industry. Because of the structure and size of our family farms, it will hit us disproportionately compared with the rest of the United Kingdom.
“This is where the Treasury’s figures do not match up with those of the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, or the Northern Ireland Rural Valuers’ Association. We have recently had agricultural land sell for £28,000 per acre. I also want to emphasise that that is per acre because, when this proposal was first made, some in the Treasury got acres and hectares mixed up. That price of land starts to put the small family farm in the scope of this financial grab, which will see the end of what generations of farmers have built up.
“Figures from the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, show that 80% of Northern Ireland’s total farmland, 90% of its dairy industry and 70% of its beef and sheep farming will fall within this scope, so when it comes to the wrecking that this proposed financial tax-grab will do to Northern Ireland farmers, as well as farmers across the United Kingdom, this Government have not fully listened.”
Mr Swann concluded by urging the Government to meet with farming unions to better understand the regional impact and beyond just the money this measure may raise:
“It is a Treasury grab to balance the books. It looks at a spreadsheet but does not have a true understanding of the impact that this will have on families and generations across our country, so I ask the Government and the Minister to engage—and to make sure that the Treasury engages—with the farm unions across this nation, because I believe they do not fully grasp the impact that this will have.”