- GP and care home tax hike: Govt must not make same mistakes as Conservatives
- Ed Davey warns inheritance tax change could create ‘lost generation’ of farmers
- Conservative Leadership: contest has shown refusal to take responsibility for the damage they did
- NICs hike: Govt must scrap “GP penalty” immediately
- Cole-Hamilton responds to Edinburgh Halloween disorder
- Cole-Hamilton: Next UK Conservative leader will not stand up for Scotland
GP and care home tax hike: Govt must not make same mistakes as Conservatives
Commenting on reports that GPs and care homes have voiced concerns about the rise in employer National Insurance Contributions announced in the budget, Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care Spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said:
After years of mismanagement by the former Conservative government, this budget was an opportunity to rescue GP surgeries from years of neglect.
We are urging the Chancellor to change course, and exempt GPs from a tax hike. This new government must not make the same mistakes as the Conservatives, fixing the GP crisis is crucial for saving the NHS.
If people can be checked quicker, fewer will end up in hospital for treatment. That’s better for patients, better for the NHS and better for taxpayers.
Ed Davey warns inheritance tax change could create ‘lost generation’ of farmers
- Davey calls on the Chancellor to reverse changes made to farmers’ inheritance tax
- The party has raised the alarm over concerns of a ‘lost generation’ of farmers
- Around 70,000 farms will be impacted by the changes to the Agricultural Property Relief scheme
- Lib Dem analysis of the Autumn Budget points to a £70m cut to DEFRA’s food and farming budget
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has raised concerns over the Autumn Budget creating a ‘lost generation’ of farmers with a double hammer blow to rural communities. It comes as he visits an agricultural college in Maidenhead today with Lib Dem MP Joshua Reynolds.
Analysis by the party raised fears of a £70 million cut to DEFRA’s food and farming budget hidden in the fine print of the Chancellor’s plans, meaning even less government support for farmers who are already struggling after years of chaos and uncertainty caused by the Conservative Party.
In the Budget, the Chancellor also announced sweeping changes to the Agricultural Property Relief scheme which will impact around 70,000 farms. The Liberal Democrats have raised serious concerns that the changes will force many to sell up small family-owned farms – with young people in rural communities across the country robbed of a future in farming as a result.
The Liberal Democrats have called on the Chancellor to reverse these changes to protect farmers and rural communities. The party said it has long been on the side of British farmers with a general election manifesto that offered an extra £1 billion a year in support to farmers who are the backbone of rural communities and underpin food security.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:
The Government is at risk of creating a lost generation of farmers. Young people will lose the opportunity to keep the farms their families have run for generations, while at the same time they are seeing government support for farming slashed.
Hitting British farmers who put food on our tables only risks making the cost-of-living crisis worse. After years of being taken for granted by the Conservative Party, rural communities should have been properly supported in this Budget.
The Chancellor now needs to listen to rural communities, reverse these measures and ensure the next generation of farmers is protected.
Liberal Democrats backed British farmers by demanding an extra £1 billion to support them during the election, and we’ll keep being a strong voice for our rural communities.
Conservative Leadership: contest has shown refusal to take responsibility for the damage they did
Commenting ahead of the result of the Conservative Party leadership contest today, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper MP said:
Whoever wins the Conservative Party leadership contest will have to carry the can for years of failure that tanked the economy and left the NHS on its knees.
This contest has shown the Conservatives are refusing to take responsibility for the damage they did to the country and are still totally out of touch with people’s concerns.
The Liberal Democrats will keep on providing the strong, decent opposition to this government that the country needs on the NHS, the cost of living and our environment.
NICs hike: Govt must scrap “GP penalty” immediately
Responding to the news that government sources have indicated that GP surgeries will not be eligible for compensation from the government’s employers NICs rise, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:
The government must scrap this GP penalty immediately.
After years of the Conservatives disgraceful neglect, our primary care services are in crisis and this could push many to reduce the number of staff they employ or just decide to shut up shop.
Instead of investing in our GPs and their staff, the government has put more pressure on them in a move that will make it even harder for patients to see a GP when they need to.
Cole-Hamilton responds to Edinburgh Halloween disorder
Responding to reports that a police officer has been injured and more than a dozen buses damaged in Edinburgh as a result of violent attacks breaking out in the city, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:
I am appalled by the violence that took place across Edinburgh last night. It left a police officer injured, property damaged and put residents and transport workers in fear of their lives.
Much more needs to be done to crack down on antisocial behaviour. That’s why I will be meeting with the First Minister in the coming weeks to discuss it in greater detail.
As we approach bonfire night, which has been the focus of violent disorder in recent years, I want to see the Scottish Government working closely with the police and councils to support them in keeping communities safe.
Cole-Hamilton: Next UK Conservative leader will not stand up for Scotland
Speaking ahead of the result of the UK Conservative Party leader, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:
No matter who takes over as Conservative leader, neither has anything to offer people in Scotland. One is a candidate who believes maternity pay is excessive; the other is a candidate who has publicly backed Donald Trump. Whoever wins, it will represent a huge and retrograde lurch to something more extreme.
I know that there are Scottish voters out there who were persuaded by Ruth Davidson but who barely recognise the Conservative Party today. They will be looking for a new home now.
Scottish Liberal Democrats won more seats than the Scottish Conservatives at the last election and we recently scored an amazing by-election victory in their heartlands of rural Perthshire. In huge swathes of Scotland, we’ve shown that we’re best placed to beat the SNP. Only we have a plan to bring down NHS waiting lists, get a fair deal for carers, help struggling pensioners, lift up Scottish education and grow our economy.
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10 Comments
70,000 farms are affected? Others are quoting radically different and much smaller numbers. I’m disappointed to see the Lib Dems buying in to the idea that any asset should be treated differently for tax just because you can preface it with “family” – the “family farm”, the “family business”, the “family home” etc. That’s the sort of thing I expect to read in the Telegraph, who have been waging war on inheritance tax on behalf of their wealthy readers for years.
Studies by the IFS and others are very clear – inheritance mostly benefits the already wealthy, and the inter-generational concentration of wealth is unhealthy for many reasons. As a liberal party, we shouldn’t support exceptionalism on behalf of any vested interest.
To be taxed you need to be claiming over £1million in agricultural relief and, as a pre-budget analysis by the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation (CenTax) suggested that only 200 estates out of 1,300 a year between 2018 and 2020 claimed more than £1m in relief each year, why would a small farmer of only a few dozen acres get hit?. (BTW..Those 200 estates – by definition among the wealthiest in Britain – reaped 64% of all the agricultural relief.)..
changes can in fact be even more generous for true family farms than the £1m headline. A married couple owning a farm together can split it in two, meaning it qualifies for £2m of agricultural property relief, plus another £500,000 for each partner if a property is involved. That means a farm worth £3m might pay zero inheritance tax, said Arun Advani, associate professor of economics at the University of Warwick and a director of CenTax…
Even farms worth £5m might in practice only pay inheritance tax of less than 1% a year, because they will be allowed to spread the cost over 10 years.
BTW, as the old song goes, “You NEVER see a farmer on a bike!”
@expats. Your ‘old song’ repeats an unfair stereotype.
If it were possible to run a farm with bicycles and hand tools, rather than incredibly expensive plant, I’m sure many farmers would be happy to spare themselves the cost.
Also, bicycles not so practical for transporting anything when you live several miles from the nearest shop.
“If it were possible to run a farm with bicycles and hand tools, rather than incredibly expensive plant”
Quite – there was something on TV recently about theft of farm equipment – tractors, quad bikes etc. – they seem to be very expensive – e.g. tractor several thousand pounds.
And when the stuff is stolen it’s away in a lorry to the continent very quickly.
Cassie, I live in a rural area in the Suffolk/Norfolk border and i stand by my comment..
As for expensive ‘plant’ most of my local farmers hire it on an ‘as when’ basis and maybe google the ‘Farming Investment Fund ( FIF ) ..
“ Ed Davey warns inheritance tax change could create ‘lost generation’ of farmers”
It could do the opposite!
There are two reasons why family businesses pay inheritance tax:
1. The owner dies unexpectedly
2. The owner hasn’t passed the business on.
So if you are a farmer with family old enough and wanting to run the farm them pass it on and retire.
@expats. Your ‘old song’ implies that farmers are all wealthy and can afford to buy expensive vehicles (so shun bicycles). My point was that expensive kit etc are not a show of wealth, but essentials.
Your follow-up that that they can hire equipment/get help to fund it, if anything, supports my point, not that of the song.
It could have been a lot worse, Cassie. They could have taken away the concession on red diesel (first introduced by Tom Williams in the Attlee Government in 1950).
@expats – “ why would a small farmer of only a few dozen acres get hit?.”
Not sure what your conception of a farm is, but the typical English one man farm (with seasonal help) is 300~400 acres.
We need to make it easier and more attractive to keep farms farming rather than being sold for housing or leased to solar operators (wind or solar panels).
“We need to make it easier and more attractive to keep farms farming rather than being sold for housing or leased to solar operators (wind or solar panels).”
Seconded.
Solar panels should go on top of commercial premises in retail parks, not on agricultural land.
Solar panels (and/or wind turbines) could co-exist with livestock on farmland which is used for sheep grazing (cows too big)