Meeting of the Parliament 13 November 2024
The agricultural property relief changes that were announced in the UK budget have created a lot of concern in rural areas and the farming community. There is a distinct lack of clarity over whom the UK Government’s plans will actually hit. The Scottish Greens support inheritance tax because it is pre-distributive, and we also believe that land in Scotland should not be in the hands of a small number of individuals, so we must hear more from Westminster about how its changes will impact farms.
As everyone in the chamber will agree, Whitehall must step in immediately if it becomes clear that small, regenerative food producers are being harmed. We must not become more reliant on food imports from countries that have lower environmental and welfare standards.
The UK Government must also intervene if the measure pushes Scotland in the wrong direction on its land reform journey. If, as my Conservative rural affairs counterpart claims, family farms will sell up en masse due to the new rate of inheritance tax, the big question will be who buys the land when it gets sold because people cannot afford the tax. It will not be new entrants or young farmers; instead, it will be agribusinesses. Greater consolidation is in the interests of a very small number of individuals and it is not in the interests of our nation. Half of all of Scotland’s land is owned by just 433 people. That is a shocking statistic—it is bad for climate, nature and communities. Scottish people deserve better.
New rules could also obscure exactly who owns what in Scotland. I have heard concerns that even more landholders will hide behind corporate or trust structures in order to get around inheritance tax. Although that practice is not illegal in our lax UK tax system, it prevents proper scrutiny and denies taxpayers what they are due. If that scenario comes to pass, it will do so at a time when public finances are in a dire state and an unacceptable number of people are in deprivation.
The motion and amendments that we have before us today do not address the actual issues that most of our food producers face. They completely fail to address why farmers and growers face such challenging circumstances. That says to me that other parties would rather play politics than use this platform to raise the problems that our constituents face.
I will remind members of some of the key issues that our growers face. As we discussed last week, Brexit is ravaging the rural economy; farmers and growers are quitting the industry because of labour shortages that have come about as a direct result of leaving the European Union; seed prices have rocketed since 2020, and fewer varieties are available; and the UK Government is choosing to export our carbon emissions by importing food from countries that have poor standards and light-touch regulation. Those are the problems that we need to talk about, because they all pose a greater threat to farming than changes to inheritance tax.