Agenda item

Councillor Major proposed a motion that was duly seconded, in the following terms:

During its last meeting, all Members of Derbyshire County Council, with the exception of Labour Councillors, supported local pensioners by urging the Government to reverse its decision to means-test the Winter Fuel Allowance, a measure that risks leaving many Derbyshire pensioners in danger of going cold during the coming months and in financial hardship, particularly with October’s significant increase the energy price cap. Unfortunately, the Budget provided the Government with many further opportunities to wreak financial havoc on the country.

The Labour Government’s avaricious tax-and-spend Budget on 30 October 2024 was clearly a long-planned full-frontal ideological assault on working people, pensioners, farmers, house-buyers, bus passengers, housing landlords, hospices and other charities, university students, businesses including care companies, childcare and pre-school facilities, and GP and Dental practices which, as the Office for Budget Responsibility and other more respected monetary and fiscal organisations have confirmed, has saddled Britain with £40 billion in extra taxes and plans to spend an additional £70 billion a year that will stifle economic growth for years to come.

The changes to the long-established Inheritance Tax Relief for agricultural land announced by the Labour Government in its mega-tax-raising Budget will introduce what has been widely dubbed as a ‘Family Farm Tax’, which will have a hugely detrimental impact on British families’ food budgets and UK food security by making it extremely difficult for farmers to pass on their Family Farms to the next generation of trained and skilled farmers.

Steve Reed, who was photographed recently wearing a £420 pair of designer wellies donated by the controversial Labour figure Lord Alli and is the Member of Parliament for the inner-London constituency of Streatham as well as the Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Sir Keir Starmer, another well-documented beneficiary of Lord Alli’s seemingly endless murky financial largesse, had both been clear in ruling out the introduction of the Family Farm Tax.

Derbyshire’s economy is highly dependent on farming, and numerous family farms  throughout the County will face the devasting impact of Labour’s terrible new tax.

The UK relies on the farming sector to ensure its food security, which now more than ever is essential to maintain with the population booming at around 70 million people.

This counterproductive and mean-spirited measure has caused levels of despair not seen in agricultural communities since the foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001.

That Council believes:

?         The Labour Government’s changes to inheritance tax relief on agricultural property, the Family Farm Tax, will make British food production significantly harder, threaten many long-established family businesses, lead to job losses, and inevitably see much increased food prices for consumers across the UK.

?         At a time when many farmers in Derbyshire are struggling with soaring costs and energy prices, this sudden tax rise will damage the future of their farms and negatively impact on local communities as well as our area’s environmental sustainability.

?         By forcing the sale of family farms, Labour’s spiteful and unnecessary measure will add a further significant threat to the nation’s food security on top of the impact on harvests of increasingly unpredictable seasonal weather patterns, the war in Ukraine and other conflicts, and the increased use of large swathes of quality agricultural land for solar farms, pylons, and battery storage installations.

?         That Sir Keir Starmer and the Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pledged on a number of occasions that they would not impose a tax like this and, therefore, the Labour Government have committed a yet another shameful betrayal and let down farmers by breaking their promises to not introduce a Family Farm Tax.

?         The Family Farm Tax will damage the ability of farmers to pass on their farms to their children, a decades-old system that has ensured the efficiency of the British farming sector and its ability to meet consumer demand at affordable price levels.

?         Numerous rural and farming organisations such as the National Farmers Union and Country Land and Business Association have warned that countless farms will be harmed, threatening food security, and negatively impacting on rural areas like much of the County of Derbyshire.

?         The comment made by Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Steve Reed that already struggling farmers, who work tirelessly to supply quality and reasonably priced produce for the people of Britain, will have to ‘do more with less’ is both uninformed and deeply concerning.

Therefore, Council resolves:

1)     To request that the Leader of the Council writes to both the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to outline the Council’s dismay at this decision and call on the Government to stop its highly damaging changes to inheritance tax relief on agricultural property - the Family Farm Tax.

2)     To call on all of Derbyshire’s MPs to act to support local farmers and consumers by proactively opposing the Government’s damaging imposition of the Family Farm Tax.

3)     That the Cabinet Members for Strategic Leadership, Culture, Tourism & Climate Change and Clean Growth & Regeneration engage with Derbyshire’s farmers on what campaigning assistance the Council can provide to support them.

Councillors Ashton, Clarke, Cupit, A Foster, M Foster, Renwick and Woolley left the meeting during the debate.

On the motion of Councillor Spencer duly seconded and in accordance with Council procedure rule 18.1 a recorded vote was taken as follows:

For the motion:

Councillors Ainsworth, Allen, Athwal, Atkin, Bull, A Dale, Muller, Flatley, Ford, Grooby, Gourlay, Hart, Hickton, Hobson, Iliffe, Kemp, King, Lewis, Major, Moss, Murphy, Nelson, Parkinson, Patten, Rose, Smith, Spencer, Sutton, Taylor, Wharmby and Wilson.

Against the motion:

Councillors Collins, C Dale, Dixon, George, Gillott, Greenhalgh, Haynes, Innes, Kinsella, Mihaly, Ramsey and Yates.

Abstentions:

Councillors Bingham, Burfoot and Fordham.

The vote was declared to be WON and CARRIED, it was therefore,

RESOLVED:

1)     To request that the Leader of the Council writes to both the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to outline the Council’s dismay at this decision and call on the Government to stop its highly damaging changes to inheritance tax relief on agricultural property - the Family Farm Tax.

2)     To call on all of Derbyshire’s MPs to act to support local farmers and consumers by proactively opposing the Government’s damaging imposition of the Family Farm Tax.

3)     That the Cabinet Members for Strategic Leadership, Culture, Tourism & Climate Change and Clean Growth & Regeneration engage with Derbyshire’s farmers on what campaigning assistance the Council can provide to support them.