'Farmers are wondering what they are farming for': Causeway Coast & Glens Cllr Holmes on farm inheritance tax plans

At this month’s full council meeting, and following the UK Government’s recent decision to impose a 20 percent inheritance tax on any UK farming properties valued above £1 million, UUP Councillor Richard Holmes proposed that council write to the DAERA Minister, Andrew Muir, calling on him to engage with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, and “demonstrate his absolute support for farmers affected”.

Additionally, council will write to Ms Reeves to “further outline the impact on local family farms and ask her to overturn this detrimental element of the budget”.

Councillor Holmes said the farming community was “still in shock” over the decision, and have been left to “wonder what they are farming for”.

He added: “Agriculture property relief has been vital to maintain viable family farms across the generations.

“Labour say they are doing this to go after the mega-wealthy and make it easier for family farms, but farming incomes are absolutely through the floor.

“Farming is tough and lonely, accident rates are high, and incomes are low so the only thing a family farm has going for it is its assets, and now the Labour government are coming for them.”

DUP councillor Mervyn Storey also put forward a similar motion condemning the “failure by the Government to prioritise farming families and the rural economy”.

The motion noted the new tax would “jeopardise succession planning on farms, create barriers for new entrants to agriculture and discourage investment in many farm businesses”.

Councillor Storey called on Mr Muir to bring forward proposals to mitigate the impact of “damaging policies”, to avoid “significant increases in food prices” and to work with Finance Minister, Caoimhe Archibald, to “deliver an early and concrete commitment to farming families that current levels of financial support will not only be maintained but increased in the next financial year”.

Councillor Storey said Labour had already “put their hands in the pockets of our pensioners” by amending the Winter Fuel Payment, and now saw farmers as “an easy target”.

“This will jeopardise succession of farming on farms,” Councillor Storey concluded. “And I don’t think there’s any of us in this chamber who doesn’t benefit from our farming community.

“The Labour Government tell us they were the party for the working man, well they certainly must have excluded the farmers, because there is no more working man or woman than those who live and labour in our farms.

“But yet this Government has decided that it was in their best interest to attack them, so it is incumbent on us as public representatives to send out a message that it is not acceptable and it is it is the wrong thing to do.”