The Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) welcomed the debate at Westminster on the disproportionate impact of inheritance tax for family farms in Northern Ireland, although the Minister’s response showed that the Government still do not understand the agricultural community.
UFU president William Irvine, and parliamentary officer Alexander Kinnear, attended the Westminster Hall debate today (October 28) on the impact of the Government’s proposed reforms to Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief on family farms in Northern Ireland. Carla Lockhart MP, the DUP Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs spokesperson, secured the debate to continue to raise the severe and disproportionate impact that the family farm tax will have in Northern Ireland directly with a Treasury Minister.
Following the debate, UFU president William Irvine said, “Today we attended Westminster for a Northern Ireland specific debate on inheritance tax changes.
“This debate, brought by Carla Lockhart, was purposed with highlighting the vulnerability that Northern Ireland family farms are facing if there are no change to the crippling inheritance tax proposals.
“The debate gave other Northern Ireland MP’s the chance to highlight their concerns, and they were joined by Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour MPs; speaking out on the detrimental effects of the devastating proposal,” continued the UFU president.
“The Government have not budged in their stance towards changes to inheritance tax; they have held their line as they have from day one, and their response today unfortunately reflected that. However, today still remains a useful opportunity to remind the Government that we haven’t gone away, we are still gravely concerned about the impact of the proposals on our family farms across Northern Ireland and we are, in the strongest terms, demanding that these proposals are removed from the table. Our fight continues.”
