Write to letters@thetimes.co.uk Sir, Will Lloyd gives an eloquent account of how many farmers feel ( “Starmer’s farmer bashing may bloody us all” , Nov 18).
The government is out of touch with the reality of a farming life. It claims that the majority of farms will not fall foul of the imposition of inheritance tax but does not seem to appreciate who grows the food that the population relies on; instead it has penalised those who have dedicated their lives to producing it. Farming is a hard and, financially at least, unrewarding way of life: to make a 1 per cent return on capital is considered acceptable.
Farmers chose to do it down the generations because the way of life is incomparable. To be so little valued by those in power is dispiriting. A farm business that is exempt from IHT when valued at under £1 million is in most cases a hobby farm or smallholding, some with a few acres of fenced pony paddock.
All very good but generally not producing much towards feeding the population. These enterprises will be exempt from tax. The super-wealthy who are using investments in agricultural land to shelter their wealth from IHT surely have access to the finest financial advice and will undoubtedly find a way of avoiding this tax.
That leaves the rump in the middle at risk, the ones ministers say will be protected: good old-fashioned family farms of 500 to 1,500 acres. Who would want to pass on all the accumulated wealth of experience to the next generation when faced with a .