North Northamptonshire Council votes to support local farmers during debate on government’s new ‘family farm tax’

The Conservative group put forward a motion at full council last week (Thursday, December 5) asking to scrutinise the government’s new inheritance tax plans, saying the decision was ‘ideologically driven’ and a direct threat to the rural communities of North Northamptonshire.

The authority was called upon to consider what support it could offer farmers affected by the new tax rates, and investigate the wider impact it could have on food security, local businesses and employment.

Proposing the motion, Cllr Alex Evelyn (Cons, Burton and Broughton) told the chamber: “As I represent a semi-rural division which is home to a number of farms I do feel quite compelled to actually speak on this motion and talk about our farming communities. It’s another day and another attack on the British people.

“This is a ticking time bomb that will impact family farms over the next five to ten years. Let’s all come together three weeks before Christmas and say we back British farms, back British meat and back British farmers.”

Council leader Jason Smithers added: “It seems there’s a constant attack on parts of our society, private schools, businesses, old age pensioners. There’s something that you don’t like rich people, obviously.

“Will Sir Keir Starmer fight for our hard-working farmers? Will this Labour group in front of us support this motion and stand shoulder to shoulder with our hard-working farmers?”

Opposition Labour Cllr Zoe McGhee argued back: “Cllr Evelyn spoke really well on this motion from the perspective of his residents, so if you’ll induge me I’d like to do the same. The previous Conservative government introduced so-called austerity which exacerbated the financial trauma of my residents, decimated their youth services, turned their lights off.

“It’s a bit divisive, but I’m going to say it because I believe it - if this new Labour government, rather than hitting our most vulnerable residents, wants to tax the rich, I can live with that.”

However, Conservative councillor for Corby Rural, Kevin Watt, said Labour had made clear their ‘whack-a-mole attitude to the rich’, forgetting the people on the cusp of proposals.

“There’s an assumption here that farms are awash with cash - it’s very expensive running a farm. These families are custodians of our countryside, and what you’re expecting is for them to sell off 20 per cent of their business.

“This really is just one of the continued attacks on what are perceived as rich people, but they are the people that are the backbone of this country.”

Conservative councillor and executive member Matt Binley said that what he had heard of the opposite benches in the debate confirmed his suspicions that the new farmers’ tax amounted to a ‘class war’.

He added: “They feel that taxing the farmers in this way is taxing the rich- it’s not.

“This is a typical socialist mentality of going take anything away from someone they think has got something and give it away to other people, forgetting that these farmers in North Northamptonshire are hard-working people and people who are struggling to make ends meet. If you don’t want to vote in favour of [the motion] you’re just being cowards.”

Cllr William Colquhoun (Labour, Lloyds) fought back against the suggestion that his party did not understand the countryside, telling the committee that one of his daughters owns an agricultural business on a piece of land and will not be affected by the new tax plans.

He explained: “There are tax allowances and exemptions before you have to pay inheritance tax and for a couple that exemption totals £3m. Now if anyone has got a business worth over £3m I think they should be paying a wee bit.

“A lot of farmers work blooming hard, 365 days for very very long hours for a relatively small return. They may be asset-rich and cash-poor, but that’s the business they’re in I’m afraid. I don’t want to see farmers go out of business I don’t want them to shut down, no-one in this chamber does.”

Burton and Broughton ward Cllr Jan O’Hara (Cons) shared the concerns of her residents over the future of the countryside if nothing is done to support family farms: “If we lose our farms, if we allow these farms to be sold on because families cannot afford to pay inheritance tax we lose them forever.

“It’s frightening to think that we as a council are working towards net zero, yet if we lose our farms, we will lose the capability to be self-sufficient, we will lose the capability to grow our own crops, we will lose the capability to hand down a tradition and a livelihood.”

Following the heated discussion, 38 members voted to support the motion, while seven were against and three abstained.