“It's time for farmers to stand up and be counted and to let the government know that they really are picking a fight they don't want to pursue.”
Jen Copestake meets farmers in Cheshire as protests rage across the UK.
#farming #farmers #uk
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Jen Copestake meets farmers in Cheshire as protests rage across the UK.
#farming #farmers #uk
Read more ⬇️
https://tinyurl.com/yc65hm5m
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NewsTranscript
00:00This is the dairy herd. There's 480 Frisian crosses.
00:06The Latham family have been tenants here at Brookhouse Dairy Farm for six generations, over 150 years.
00:14But now proposed changes to inheritance tax threaten to break their cycle of generational farming.
00:20Well, the government seemed to have pulled the rug out from underneath farmers
00:24with changes to inheritance tax, changes to agricultural property relief and business property relief.
00:30They have removed our subsidies. We're feeling rather unloved at the moment.
00:36The inheritance tax is just one part of an increasingly bleak picture for British farmers.
00:42Rising energy and fertilizer costs, cut to export opportunities after Brexit and labour shortages have hit them hard.
00:50That's on top of the struggles over the last two decades, which included foot and mouth disease, a TB outbreak
00:56and selling milk for less than it cost to produce during the Covid pandemic.
01:01Farmers return on investment is about half of 1%. So it's the affordability of their tax that's the problem.
01:07There's low confidence in the UK farming industry among farmers.
01:11According to recent government numbers, 50% of farmers in the UK do not feel positive about their future in the industry.
01:19Phil's 86-year-old father, Robin, has worked on the farm for 70 years with no plans to retire.
01:26His 15-year-old grandson, Sam, wants to carry on the family tradition.
01:30But Robin worries about what the proposed changes would mean for him.
01:34We're asset rich, but cash poor. And now if we have to lose 20% of that, that means when Sam, if he takes over,
01:42he'll be responsible for paying this new tax, which has just been dropped on us out of the hat.
01:48Sam is the seventh generation of Latham farmers. He says the skills he's inherited are dying out.
01:54I know about two people who want to go into farming, but there's just not enough people in my generation
01:58that want to get their hands dirty, want to get involved.
02:01Like many farmers, the Lathams have needed to diversify their business,
02:05building an equestrian centre on the site of one of their former dairy farms.
02:09It took years of work and they needed a multi-million dollar loan to pay for it.
02:15For the Lathams, farming is not just a livelihood, but a legacy.
02:19All three will travel to London to join the protests again.
02:23The British government said it recognised the feelings expressed by farmers,
02:27but that it needed to make difficult decisions to cover the $28 billion hole in public finances.
02:33Jen Cobstake, CGTN, Cheshire.