Dunsby farmer headed to London to support NFU protest against inheritance tax and highlight issues faced by the industry
A south Lincolnshire farmer was among the thousands who descended onto London in a bid to get the Government to reverse its decision on inheritance tax.
Zara Dorrington is the fourth generation of her family to farm 2000 acres of land around Dunsby, near Bourne, over the last 100 years to produce crops and milk - but she is hoping to raise awareness of the repercussions of the Autumn Budget.
She joined thousands of farmers who left the countryside to head to the Houses of Parliament to show their concern over reforms to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) along with the impact of increased national insurance contributions.
These changes mean farm businesses will need to pay a tax rate of 20% of agricultural assets valued over £1 million but the NFU is rejecting the government’s claims that around three quarters of farm businesses in England will be unaffected by the changes.
The NFU argues that few viable farms are worth under £1 million and Treasury is working off the wrong figures - as they are using a different set to DEFRA.
Zara is calling for the Government to look again at it’s definition of a working family farm but also stressed that they are happy to pay tax - but added that many family firms do not have large cash reserves. She has also thanked the public for their support and hopes to highlight the importance of food security.
She said of the protest: “It was so important to try to highlight to the public and Parliament that we just want to produce high quality food.
“We have becoming under increasing pressure and margins are tighter and tighter.
“This measure doesn’t seem to have been thought through and they are not using figures that actually represent what the impact is going to have. It felt like no-one was listening and hopefully now someone might at least listen to us and make some progress.
“The definition of a working farm and a working family farm seems to have been completely missed by the Government. This is a tax on death rather than on profits.
Zara said that farmers do not mind paying tax on money they have earned but fears that this new measure could ‘tie our hands behind our back and stop us being able to farm in the future’.
She added: “Yes we are asset rich and our land value is much higher than it was decades ago but we don’t have the cash reserves sitting around around to pay a backlog of tax in one hit.
“If they were to give us time to plan that is fine but this measure giving us does not give us time to plan and goes against advice we have previously received.”
The reforms come on the back of a couple of tough years for farmers who have endured poor harvests as a result of bad weather including heavy rainfall and storms.
Earlier this year, the NFU called on supermarkets to pay farmers a sustainable price for food after warning that many of its members are struggling to remain viable due to ‘sustained and spiralling production costs, low market returns, and increasing levels of regulation’.
Government subsidies have also dropped plus the previous Conservative Government also agreed trade deals with countries like Australia which do not have the same welfare standards as our farmers so are cheaper.
Zara has also highlighted the potential fertiliser tax - which could see farmers being charged for bringing in items needed to grow our food while allowing other countries access to our markets.
Attracting younger people - and following generations - into agriculture is also a challenge for the industry.
Zara said: “Family farms rely on family labour as the wages are not great. So it is understandable that some people are seeing how hard their parents have worked and say it’s not for them.”
She works on the family farm alongside her father, Ross, and uncle, Simon, after developing a passion for farming as a teenager.
Zara said: “I love the industry. I think it is fantastic we can be custodians of the countryside and look after the soils.”
