16:30 Edward Leigh (Conservative)

Listening is really important. I have heard from my local farmers that they are caught between thinking, “Is this a mistake?” and thinking, “Is this done on purpose?” Did the Government mistakenly not realise that they were going to bring all these family farmers into inheritance tax and agricultural change? Or, worse still, was it planned all along as a way to get the land for housing and some of the net zero targets? Either could be true. Does the hon. Gentleman have a preference over which one it is? Farmers want to know whether it was a mistake that should be rectified or it is an ideal policy driven by the Government.

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16:55 Rachel Taylor (Labour)

Helen Fisher from Grendon expressed her concerns that changes to inheritance tax will reduce the incentive for farms to invest in improving their productivity. Will the Minister confirm what action is being taken to ensure that farmers are incentivised to make their farms more productive? Chris Corbett from Atherstone raised concerns about the impact that erratic weather is having on the productivity of his farm, with a 30% drop in harvests this year. Will the Minister set out what the Government are doing to support farmers to adapt to the challenge of climate change and improve productivity?

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17:07 David Smith (Labour)

The Government’s aim is to support our farmers and our food security, but we are doing that in a context where Tory inaction over 14 years has left great challenges, including climate change, a muddled and chaotic Brexit, and, as we have heard, deals on lamb and beef that our farmers are concerned about. We are not working in a vacuum. I am the first Labour MP in history for the vast majority of my constituency; that is not because the population were happy with what the Conservatives delivered for the countryside and farmers. I ask the Government to consider whether the balance is right. I have spoken to farmers in my constituency whose farms are worth £5 million, £8 million, £20 million and everything in between.

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17:31 Ellie Chowns (Green)

I feel that the way the policy has been introduced is deeply regrettable, not only because it has caused such huge distress to the farming community—we are all aware of the mental health challenges that those in the community face anyway, and this has made it worse—but because it hugely undermines the much more positive and constructive conversations that Government and farmers desperately need to have in order to face the challenges of food production, job generation, tackling climate change and protecting biodiversity. Those are areas where farmers and Government need to work hand in hand for the long term, but all of that has been blown up in the air by the way the policy has been introduced—it is super frustrating.

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17:34 Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat)

The farmers are deeply angry about what happened last year, but they have now come to the conclusion that it is unlikely the Chancellor is going to make a U-turn, so they asked me to convey their ideas of what they want from the Government. They want a consultation with them about how these changes can be modified. They recognise that there are people buying up land in the countryside who are not producing food and are not supporting the environmental aims of the Government to mitigate climate change.

I saw just how much was being invested in tractors, muck-spreaders, equipment to cut and bale the grass, milking equipment and water storage systems. If we want our farms to be more efficient and more profitable, it is ridiculous to tax farmers on investments in making their farms work better. So I implore the Minister—this tax is going to harm the countryside and food security, and if we end up increasing imports it will also have negative impacts on climate change and animal welfare. It is so important that the Minister hears our message—that of Opposition Members, and the people in the Gallery and in the tractors outside—and I hope that the Minister takes this opportunity to at least reform if not scrap this tax.

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18:16 Caroline Voaden (Liberal Democrat)

Farmers are key to tackling climate change and the nature crisis and are crucial to our food security, so why do we want to place them under yet more pressure after all the challenges they have already faced in the last decade, including the damaging trade deals, the poorly managed transition to environmental land management schemes, a botched deal with the EU that has limited their ability to export, higher input and energy prices, and of course floods?

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18:26 Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat)

Remember, these people feed us and care for vast areas of our green and pleasant land, yet we allow wholesale food prices to be kept low, make them compete with foreign food imports that are produced to lower standards, and reduce agricultural support grants. We stand by while climate change delays their planting, reduces their harvests and increases pests and disease. Making farmers pay inheritance tax could be the final straw for British farms. The Government need to restore the inheritance tax exemptions to save our family farms.

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