Borders primary school pupils give farmers' inheritance tax the boot

The farming community is protesting against the Government's plans to remove inheritance tax relief from farms, and the Welly Boot campaign was launched across the UK to show support.

Lesley Cavers, of Crosshall Farm near Eccles, was behind the children's march at Edenside School, and insists the government move will have greatest impact on the younger generations.

“There’s a lot of farmers from the Borders and across the South of Scotland have gone down to London to make their voices heard,” she said, “and explain to the government how this will affect much more than the six percent of farmers the government seem to think.

“For those that couldn’t go to London the welly boot march was to show the support for farming. As our area is farming orientated we thought it was a nice way to show our support to the farmers, and that as a community we do appreciate what they do for us.

“And this will have affect the next generations of farmers. They are going to have to sell land to pay for inheritance tax and then the farm becomes less efficient because the land isn’t there anymore to grow on."

Farmers have been striving to explain why the removal of inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1m, at 20 percent - half the normal rate - is not about taxing the wealthy. The new UK Government was keen to address a trend in large companies and wealthy individuals, including James Dyson, buying up farms to benefit from sizeable carbon deficit and net zero income, or to locate battery storage parks with similarly high yields from the National Grid.

Lesley explained: "There is a lot of huge companies or millionaires buying farmland for carbon credit and net zero, and planting woodland, but they have no knowledge or interest in agriculture, so taxing small rural family farms when that is your target is missing the point.

“The government doesn’t seem to understand that rural farmers like us are asset rich but cash poor – the money spent by Borders farmers is on investing in the expensive machinery needed to farm the land, and produce the food, and doesn’t create big profits, and that’s the bottom line: the farmers are working to produce our three meals a day effectively.

“The land is only worth money to us if it’s sold. So why would you tax what is only a tool to grow food and then pass on to the next generation to do the same?

“My family are third generation farmers and we have never thought about selling the land, but now? It would certainly be a lot easier [to sell]. You know, you work every hour going and you want to plan for the future but what’s the point now? At the end of the day you’ll have to sell a lot of the farm to pay inheritance tax, and then it’s no longer viable?

“We’re a rural area built on agriculture, local farmers producing high quality food right on our doorstep and if the farms disappear the local economy will suffer because if you look at how much employment is linked to agriculture. And once that knowledge of farming is gone, the knowledge of looking after our rural landscapes and growing the food, it’s all gone."

She added: “Agriculture and farming has got so small and once these farmers go out of business the knowledge is gone. Does the country want to rely on imports? Look what happened during Covid when everything ground to a halt, supermarket costs rocketed and you just couldn’t get food.

“A lot of the economy in the south of Scotland is linked to agriculture, and the farmers in this area also support the local rugby, football and other clubs; our school’s Christmas tree comes from a local farmer every year; and when the roads get blocked farmers are the first people out to clear the rural roads to keep communities going.

“There is a lot that will be lost if this goes ahead and farmers decide that it’s time just to sell up.”