皇家华人

NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: 鈥淔armers and growers have been left reeling from the changes announced in the budget which demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of how the British farming sector is shaped and managed. The current plans to change APR and BPR need to be overturned and fast.

鈥淔armers are rightly angry and concerned about their future and the future of their family farms, having been reassured by minsters in the lead up to the Budget that APR and BPR changes were not on the table.

鈥淭he Treasury鈥檚 figures which claim this will only affect one in four British farms are misleading. The 拢1 million cap to APR shows how little this government understands the sector. Very few viable farms would be worth under 拢1m, but lots of smallholdings and houses with a few acres let for grazing might be. The asset value of genuine food-producing farms will be high, given the size they need to be to remain viable businesses; but that鈥檚 the value of the asset, it doesn鈥檛 reflect its profitability which is often, and increasingly so, very low.

鈥淐learly the government does not understand that family farms are not only small farms, and that just because a farm is an asset, it doesn鈥檛 mean those who work it are wealthy. Every penny the Chancellor saves from this will come directly from the next generation having to break up their family farm. It simply mustn鈥檛 happen.

鈥淢Ps need to understand the consequences of these actions which is why we are mobilising our members for a mass lobby in the coming weeks. British farmers will ask their MPs to look them in the eye and tell them whether they support this.

鈥淭here鈥檚 still time for the government to accept they鈥檝e got this wrong, and my message to ministers is that they should do the right thing and reverse this awful family farm tax.鈥�