Meeting of the Parliament 13 November 2024
I have already taken an intervention.
Farming communities tell us of their concerns that good agricultural land is changing hands at excessive prices for tax avoidance and also to be used for carbon trading. Polluters are allowed to pollute and then to ease their conscience by planting trees in the wrong place, preventing new entrants from getting into farming at all. That increases the value of farms beyond the reach of the farming community—something that the last Conservative Government did nothing at all about. The Conservative Government also had an underspend for agriculture funding of £358 million over the last three years, withholding support from farmers in England. Things are not much better in Scotland, where the SNP is raiding agricultural funding.
Although the Conservative Party withheld money from all farmers, it is now picking up the cudgels to fight for the very few who have millions of pounds in assets. Those are often large estates, owned by the privileged few.
If this policy has an outcome of ensuring that land holdings are smaller, giving people access to farming, it will have a wider benefit for society as a whole. It will also ensure that those living and working on the land have their fair share of the investment.
Let us be honest—it is the Conservatives who are trying to stir up strife, trying to get those who have modest assets to fight for the privileged few—
Tim Eagle rose—