The Lib Dems' briefing on the 'Family Farm Tax'

The Liberal Democrats have issued a briefing on what we are calling the 'Family Farm Tax'. I had not fully grasped before reading it that we are opposed to imposing Inheritance Tax (IHT) on any farmland, no matter how high the value of the estate. 

This means that the argument in the new Private Eye's farming column apply to the Lib Dems every bit as much as it does to the NFU:

The NFU has labelled Reeves's measure as "the family farm tax", but this smacks of thinly disguised special pleading for all landowners regardless of scale. And what constitutes a family farm? Should Sir James Dyson's 36,000 acres, for example, worth approximately £500m be described as one?

Farmers may not be able to see it, but making farmland taxable on death is a useful deterrent to ultra-high-net-worth individuals whose main motive for buying farmland is to pass on significant wealth to their heirs tax-free. Farmers complain that farming only returns 1 per cent on the capital invested, but this only shows how much the value of land has been inflated by non-farmers seeking refuge from IHT. ...

If the removal of farmland's exemption from IHT deters investors who are largely motivated by tax advantages then land prices may fall far enough that owning some can once more become an aspiration for family farmers.

In bringing in these changes to IHT, the government has made a genuine attempt to differentiate between family farms and land that is held purely because of the tax advantages it has hitherto offered.

I can see that it has all been done rather quickly, and it may be that the line has been drawn in the wrong place, but the Lib Dems' blanket opposition seems misjudged.

You can argue that one of the problems farmers face is the power of the supermarkets, but tackling that will be difficult for any government, because it will put up prices to consumers.

And while most voters instinctively support farmers - it's seen as a traditional and ethical occupation - it's possible to ask if it is desirable to farm every last acre, when overgrazing by sheep has left upland landscapes so bare in many places.

After all, as a party we also support the Climate and Nature Bill, which includes a target that will see:

the health, abundance, diversity and resilience of species, populations, habitats and ecosystems so that by 2030, and measured against a baseline of 2020, nature is visibly and measurably on the path of recovery.

There are few easy answers here. The questions are more complex than the party's briefing makes them appear.