As part of its local inheritance tax campaign ‘Write to your MPs’, the Ulster Farmers’ Union will be attending marts across Northern Ireland to encourage farmers to get behind its efforts whilst providing writing support to create their personalised letters.
UFU representatives will be attending the following marts:
- 13 September – Swatragh, Clogher and Markethill
- 15 September – Omagh and Ballymena
- 17 September – Dungannon, Saintfield and Lisahally
- 18 September – Enniskillen, Kilrea, Plumbridge (weather dependent) and Clogher
- 19 September – Ballymena, Draperstown and Rathfriland
UFU president William Irvine said, “We want to get out on the ground meeting and chatting to farmers to get them on board with our ‘Write to your MP’ campaign. A key point that we will be stressing is that we don’t get a rerun at this. We are now in a very critical point in time for local farming. The proposed changes to Inheritance Tax and Agricultural Property Relief are being pushed to become law in the next few months and we need to work together to protect Northern Ireland farm families.
Sending a personlised letter to local MPs and asking them to forward it to the Treasury for an appropriate response, is the best way for our farmers to reach those at the top of Labour government.
“We will have various members of staff available at marts across Northern Ireland to help get your story down on paper and have created guidelines, available on our website, to make the process easier. Every individual letter needs to tell a personal story of how your family farm is going be impacted, the emotional stress and turmoil that these proposed changes have caused.
“The UFU has always fought on behalf of local farmers and will continue to do so to get the best possible outcome for farm families, but we cannot do this alone. We need every farmer in Northern Ireland to work with us to make this campaign a success and to ensure local agriculture has a future.”
To download the UFU’s ‘write to your MPs guidelines’ please click here. Members can also contact UFU technical officers for assistance with writing their letter.
