Holsworthy farmer, Derek, says there is real worry among farmers

A local farmer has explained that there is real worry among locals following the changes to inheritance tax announce by the government.

Transcript

00:00I sat in somebody's kitchen there last week and there was a grandfather and a son, and

00:09a daughter in this case, and there was real worry on their faces. They've made no preparation

00:14at this stage and the consternation that that farm may come to an end is very real for them

00:22and that's going to be repeated so many places. One thing I wanted to say is that I've got

00:28the age where I listen to Radio 4 in the morning and Farming Today, and the Minister of Agriculture,

00:33Steve, keeps bringing up this subject and saying it's only 73% of farms will not be

00:39affected. I think we need to challenge that lie time and time again, because when they

00:44classify a farm, it could be a farm that was active decades ago, but now it's left out

00:50to grass keep, the owner may trim the hedges and do a little bit of work to be classified

00:55as a farm. So when it goes through HMRC books, it's classified as a farm, but it has been

01:00an active, productive farm for years. And so they say 73% aren't affected, but they

01:05are not productive farms anymore. The productive farms will nearly all be affected and I think

01:10we need to keep making that message very clear.